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EXPLANATION TO PLATE I. 



Country in which the species is not indigenous; 
which it visits at irregular intervals ; in which it 
is most disastrous ; and which it vacates within a year. 

Area more often visited ; in which the species holds 
its own longer, but which it generally forsakes in the 
course of time. 

Region where the species comes to perfection ; in 
which it permanently breeds ; and from which come 

the disastrous swarms that sweep over the first mentioned 

region. 

Area west of the mountains where the species also, 
in all probability, breeds permanently ; from which 

it sometimes pushes to the east of the mountain range ; 

and from which the California swarms probably come. 



rrHE 



Locust Plague 



XJ:n^ited States 



BEING MORE PARTICULARLY A TREATISE ON THE 



OR SO-CALLED 



GRASSHOPPER, 

AS IT OCCURS EAST OF THE ROCKY JIOUNTAINS, 

WITH 

Practical Recommendations for its Destruction. 



/ BY 

>^ Charles Y; Riley, M.A., Ph.D.., 

bTATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MISSOURI ; CHIEF OF THE U. S. ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 

LECTURER ON ENTOMOLOGY IN VAKIOUS COLLEGES; 

AUTHOR OF '• POTATO PKSTS,' ETC. 



"WITH 45 IXiXjXrSTE-J^TIOlTS. 



NO...C//.C 

•> 187 

CHICAGO: v^^^-c^wAi 



EAND, McNALLY & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
1877. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 

Charles V. Rilby, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface 7 

Introduction 9 



CHAPTER I. 

Characters of the Species 13 

Classificatory position of the Rocky Mountain Locust, 13. — 
How it difters from other species, 14. — Easily confounded 
with the common Red-legged Locust, 14. — Detailed descrip- 
tions of both, 15. — Its still closer resemblance to the Atlan- 
tic Migratory Locust, 22. — Characters of this last, 22. — Spe- 
cies vs. variety and race, 23. — Comparisons of these three 
closelj'-allied species in their early stages, 26. — A green 
variety of the Rocky Mountain Locust not infrequent, 27. — 
Purely an American insect, 28. 

CHAPTER IL 

Chronological History 29 

The Locust plague in the "Old World," 29.— Extent of its 
injuries, 30. — Migratory species in Europe, Asia and 
Africa, 30. — The ravages of the locust in America, 31. — Its 
earliest visitations, 31. — injuries on the Pacific Coast, 32. — 
Injuries east of the Rocky Mountains, 33. — Invasions of 
1818-19, 33.— Of 1845-49, 34.— Of 1855, 34.— Of 1856, 35.— 
Of 1837-67, 35. 36.— "Of 1866, 36.— Damage the following 
year, 37.— The invasion of 1873, 38.— That of 1874, 89.— 
Why so disastrous, 41. — General outlook in the spring of 
1875, 42. — Severity of the injuries from the young insects 
that year, 43. — Destitution that prevailed, 44. — Amount of 
loss sustained, 45. — Destination of departing swarms of 
1875, 47. —The invasion of 1876, 49. — Eastern limit reached, 
53. — Omaha conference, 53. 



4 Contents. 

CHAPTER III. 

PAGB 

Native Home and Geographical Range of the 

Species East of the Mountains 55 

Source of the devastating swarms that reach into the 
Mississippi Valley, 55. — Theirorigin in the extreme North- 
west country lying east of the mountains, 56. — Cause of 
their emigration, 57. — Difference between summer and fall 
swarms, 58. — The species not at home in the Mississippi 
Valley, 6-3. — Not permanent or able to perpetuate itself 
there, 62. — Conditions which prevent such permanence, 
63. — Not likely to do serious harm east of the ninety- 
fourth meridian, 65. — Reasons why, 65. 

CHAPTER IV. 
Natural History and Transformations .... 69 

How the eggs are laid, 69. — Philosophy of the egg-mass, 
71. — The female capable of laying more than one egg- 
mass, 72. — The escape of the young locust from the egg, 
73. — Its emergence from the ground, 78. — Growth and 
transformations, 78. — Acquisition of wings, 80. — Number 
of molts, 82.— Flight at night, 83. 

CHAPTER V. 
Habits, and Power for Injury 85 



Flight and ravages, 85. — Migratory instinct and great de- 
structive power confined to a single species west of the 
Mississippi, 88. — Food plants, 89. — Injury to fruit trees, 
93. — Time of appearance of invading swarms, 94. — Rate 
at which they spread, 95. — Direction of their flight, 96. — 
Where the eggs are preferably laid, 96. — Time of hatching, 
97. — Habits of the young or unfledged locusts, 98. — Direc- 
tions in which the young travel, 100. — Rate at which 
they travel, 100. — Limit of their eastward spread, 100. — 
Not led by kings or queens, 101. — Direction taken by the 
departing swarms, 103. — Their destination, 104. 

CHAPTER VI. ■ 
Effects of the Young Insects in the Country 

WHERE they hatch, BUT WHERE THEY ARE NOT 
indigenous 107 

Experience with the young locusts in spring, 107. — Contrast 
in summer and fall, 108. — No evil without some compen- 



Contents. 



sating good, 108. — Changes that follow the locusts, 109.— 
The prevalence of large green worms, 110. — The sudden 
appearance of a peculiar grass, 110. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PAGE 

Natural Enemies of the Rocky Mountain Locust 113 

Birds and other vertebrate animals, 113. — The good offices 
of birds, 113. — Invertebrate animals, 114. — Animals that 
attack the eggs, 115.— The Silky Mite, 115.— The Antho- 
myia Egg-parasite, 118. — The common Flesh-fly, 123. — 
Uudeteiinined larvae, 123. — Ichneumon-flies, Ground-bee- 
tles, Click-beetles and Myriapods, 126. — Insects that destroy 
the active locust, 126. — The Locust-mite, 128. — The Anony- 
mous Tachina-fly, 131. — Yellow-tailed Tachina-fly, 134. — 
Flesh-fly, 135. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Practical Considerations . 139 

How best to prevent locust injuries, 139. — Encourage- 
ment of natural enemies, 139. — Destruction of the eggs, 
139. — Experiments with the eggs, and conclusions drawn 
therefrom, 140. — Effects of alternately freezing and thaw- 
ing, 141. — Influence of moisture, 143. — Exposure to the free 
air, 148. — Burying at different depths, and pressure of the 
soil, 149. — Table of temperatures, 152. — Harrowing in the 
fall, 153. — Collecting the eggs, 153. — Plowing; how most 
effectual, 153. — Irrigation, Tramping, 154 — Destruction of 
the young or unfledged Locusts, 155. — Burning, 155. — 
Crushing, 157. — Trapping, 157. -Ditching and trenching, 
161. — Catching, IGl — Different contrivances for this pur- 
pose, 162. — Use of destructive agents, 162. — Coal-oil pans, 
163. — The use of coal tar, 164. — The protection of plants 
by special applications, IfiS. — The best means of protect- 
ing fruit and shade trees, 166. — Sulphur fumes and smudges, 
167. — Destruction of the winged locusts, 167. — Preventive 
measures, 169. — Suggestions that may prove of service, 
170. — Use of hogs and poultry, 171. — The Signal Service, 
172. — Military aid, 173. — Diversified agriculture, 174. — 
Organized effort, 176. — State legislation, 176. — Missouri 
locust-law, 177. — Kansas locust-laws, 178, 179. — Minnesota 
locust-law, 180. — Nebraska locust-law, 184. — How to avert 
locust invasions, 186. 



6 Contents. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PAOB 

Ravages of Locusts East of the Mississippi . .187 

Migratory Locusts in the Eastern States, 187.— The Atlan- 
tic Locust, 187. — Injury from other, non-migratory species, 
190.— Often a serious matter during hot, dry seasons, 
193.— Locust flights in Illinois in 1875, 195. — The species 
of which the swarms were composed, 197. — Locust flights 
east of the Mississippi not composed of the Rocky Mount- 
ain species, 201. — Necessity of discriminating between 
species, 201. 

CHAPTER X. 

General Considerations 207 

Nomenclature, 207. — Locust vs. Grasshopper, 207. — 
Prairie fires vs. locust ravages, 209. — Fasting and prayer, 
213. — Not a divine visitation, 216.— Influence of the wind 
in determining the course of locust flights, 216. — Locusts 
as food for man, 217. — Unnecessary alarm caused by com- 
paratively harmless species, 227. 



PREFACE. 



The author has been frequently urged by those 
who have been interested in, or who have profited 
by his writings, to republish, in compact form, the 
articles that have appeared in the Missouri Entomo- 
logical Reports, on the subject of the Rocky Moun- 
tain Locust. The work herewith submitted to the 
public is the result. It is simply an orderly bring- 
ing together and revision of the matter contained in 
sundry fugitive articles, and particularly of that 
in the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Reports afore- 
mentioned, which have no circulation outside of 
Missouri. It could not well have appeared with- 
out the kind assistance of Prof. O. S. Westcott, of 
the High School, Chicago, to whom the writer is 
under obligations for superintending the details of 
publication during his constant absence in the field, 
in the performance of Government duty. 

Trusting that the work will interest both the pop- 
ular and the scientific reader, certain descriptive 
passages, of more especial concern to the naturalist, 
have not been excluded, but are printed in smaller 
type than the text, so that they may be skipped by 



8 Preface. 

the farmer, or by others who do not care for such 
details. These will be found principally in the first 
chapter. Except where necessary, for the sake of 
precision, technicalities have been avoided. The 
term "larva," frequently employed, means the 
young or second state of an insect — that succeeding 
the egg ; and the term " pupa " mea ns the third state, 
or that preceding the perfect or mature form. In 
most insects, the larva is vermiform, and totally 
unlike the parent, while the pupa is dormant or 
quiescent. In tlie locust, however, the change from 
one state to another is gradual, and the pupa is 
active. 

The sign 5 wherever used, indicates "male;" 
the sign ? "female." The illustrations ai^e from 
nature by the author, unless otherwise stated, and 
where enlarged, the natural size is usually given in 
hair-line. The facts and recommendations are the 
result of extensive personal experience, and that 
they may prove of benefit to the large class which 
suffers from locust injuries, is the earnest desire of 

The Author. 

St. Louis, Mo., May 15th, 1877 



INTRODUCTION 



No insect has ever occupied a larger share of 
public attention in North America, or more injuri- 
ously affected our greatest national interest, than the 
subject of this treatise. Especially during the past 
four years has it brought ruin and destitution to 
thousands of our Western farmers, and it constitutes 
to-day the greatest obstacle to the settlement of 
much of the fertile country between the Mississippi 
and the Rocky Mountains. Knowledge is power in 
protecting our crops against the ravages of a tiny 
insect, as in all other undertakings ; and according 
as accurate knowledge regarding this locust plague 
is disseminated among our people, will they be able 
to vanquish the common foe. 

It is a gratifying evidence of the progressive 
character of our Republic, that the late Congress 
made provision for a Commission, the duty of which 
is to make a thorough survey of this locust subject, 
with a view of enabling our people to protect their 
crops against the insect' s attacks, and, if possible, 
prevent its incursions from its native breeding 
grounds. The task is a great one, and the good 



10 Introduction. 



that will flow from the labors of the Commission 
will, let us hope, be correspondingly great. 

The history of this Migratory Locust, east of the 
Rocky Mountain range, as recorded in the following 
pages, presents certain marked features. We have, 
first, the migrations of winged swarms in autumn, 
from the mountain regions of the West and North- 
west, into the more fertile country south of the 44th 
parallel and east of the 100th meridian ; second, the 
return migration of the progeny, as soon as wings are 
acquired the next summer. It is the more fertile and 
thickly settled country south and east of the limits 
indicated, which suffers most, both from the insects 
that sweep over it, and from the young that hatch 
in its rich soil ; and it is principally this country 
which, in this work, is designated as outside the 
insect's native home, and in which it can never 
become a permanent resident. The species does not 
dwell permanently even in much of the -country 
north and west of those lines, but it flourishes more 
and more toward tlie Saskatchawan, Swan River 
and Red River Settlements of British America, and 
westward therefrom. 

Another marked feature is the eastern limit of the 
insect's spread, at a line broadly indicated by the 
94th meridian, and the consequent security from 
serious injury east of that line. These three 



Introduction. 11 



features — the Northwest origin, the return migra- 
tion from the Southeast country (which implies 
only temporary injury therein), and the Eastern 
limit — maybe stated as laws governing the insect 
east of the Rocky Mountains. They were first fully 
propounded by the writer, and will, he believes, be 
fully established and confirmed by future events. 
Their general truth is a guarantee to the people of 
the Mississippi Valley against continued injury from 
locust ravages, and should banish from the minds of 
the farmers east of the great "Father of Waters," 
the fear of being visited by the disastrous locust 
armies. 

One other point is, also, made clear in the follow- 
ing pages, viz., that in the more thickly settled parts 
of the country subject to visitation, man has the 
power to utterly rout, by practical and feasible 
means, the young or unfledged insects. Indeed, 
when our people become familiar with the locust 
plague in all its phases, it will cease to be such a 
bugbear. There is no part of the country that is 
not subject to meteorological or entomological 
excesses, and in the long run the Rocky Mountain 
Locust is not more injurious in the country which 
it occasionally visits, than are some of the farmer's 
insect foes, in other parts of the country. When 
we think of the famine and utter destitution that at 



12 Introduction. 



times overtake some of the Eastern peoples, we 
may well feel grateful that we live in a land of such 
resources and promise. The threatened country is, 
in the main, one of the most fertile regions on the 
face of the globe. It has prospered in the past : it 
will prosper in the future ; and in proportion as we 
meet this locust enemy with enterprise and con- 
certed, intelligent action, in that proportion shall 
we vanquish it. 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



CHAPTER I, 



CHARACTERS OF THE SPECIES. 

The Rocky Mountain Locust belongs to the Order of 
Straight-winged Insects ( Orthoptera), and to the Family 
LocicstidoBy Westwood.* It is the Galoptenus spretus of 
Thomas,! and comes to perfection only in the plains re- 
gions of the Rocky Mountains and of the Northwest. 

EASILY CONFOUNDED AVITH THE RED-LEGGED LOCUST. 

The western farmer is too familiar with the insect under 
consideration to need any detailed description of it. Yet 
this work will doubtless come into the hands of many who 
have yet formed no personal acquaintance with the pest, 
but who nevertheless, for one reason or another, desire to 
become familiar with its appearance. There are also sev- 
eral allied species which are apt to be confounded with it, 



* Acridii, Latreille. 

t The species was named in MS. by Mr. P. R. Uhler, of Baltimore, Md., but 
never by him described. Mr. B. D. Walsh subsequently (Practical Entomolo'^ist, 
II, p. 1,) adopted Mr. Uhler'sname in connection with a partial description; but 
Mr. Thomas first fully defined the species, as here distinguished and referred to 
by me. 

(13) 




14 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

and two of these I desire to call special attention to, be- 
cause they are widespread and common. So at the outset 
the reader will be served with some rather dry details, 
and if such be not palatable, he is advised to pass to other 
chapters that may interest him more. 

In my endeavors to accurately map out the territory in 
Missouri invaded in 1874 by the Rocky Mountain Locust, 
I was frequently puzzled by accounts from counties east of 
the limit-line beyond which, as I shall show in Chapter VI, 
it never reaches to do harm. In every such instance, 
where I was able to obtain specimens, they proved to be 
^'^" '^.^_ ^^® common Red-legged 

Locust. This last species 
is common in most of the 
States, extending to the 
red-Legged Locust. Atlantic, and IS even re- 

ported in parts of the Rocky Mountain region, where the 
migratory species is at home. The two bear such a close 
general resemblance that even entomologists have doubted 
their specific distinctness; and indeed size and colorational 
characters would not suflice to separate the exceptional 
individuals which depart most from the typical characters 
of their species, and approach most to those of the other. 
[Fig. 2.]^^ Yet they are distinct, as 

species go, and in order to 
properly study the distri- 
bution of the Rocky Moun- 
RocKT mS^'ntII^ Locust. tain species, and its power 

of becoming acclimated in the Mississippi Valley, or not, 
it is of the first importance that observers confound not 
the two species. Hence, I shall desciibe in detail the two 
insects. From these details, which follow in smaller type, 
it is evident that the distinguishing characters, most ea!=ily 
observed by the non-entomologist, are the relative length 






Characters of the Species. 15 

of wing, and the structure of the terminal joint of the 
male abdomen, which is turned up like the prow of a 
t^'s- 3] ship — this last character being the 

most important [^'S- ^l 

and constant. 
The Rocky Moun- 
tain species has 
the wings ex- 

RocKT Mountain Lo- . ° Red-legged Iocust:— 

crsT ■— Anal characters of tending, when Anal characters of male: 

male; a, side view; &, c, hind a. side view ; 6, c, hind and 

and top views, of tip. closed, about top views, of tip. 

one-third their length beyond the tip of the abdomen 
(Fig. 2), and the last or upturned joint of the abdomen 
narrowing like the prow of a canoe, and notched or pro- 
duced into two tubercles at top (Fig. 3). The wings of 
the Red-legged Locust extend, on a average, about one- 
sixth their length beyond the tip of the abdomen (Fig. 1), 
and the last abdominal joint is shorter, broader, more 
squarely cut off at top, without terminal tubercles, and 
looks more like the stern of a barge (Fig. 4). 

DESCRirXIVE: DETAILED COMPARISONS WITH THE RED- 
LEGGED LOCUST. 

A large amount of material examined, has enabled me to make 
very thorough comparisons between the two species. The genus 
Caloptenus to which the species belongs, is distinguished principally 
by the stoutness of the spine-like tubercle on the fore-breast be- 
tween the front legs, and by the tip of the abdomen in the male 
bemg much swollen. Mr. Cyrus Thomas, in his admirable work on 
the "Acrididaeof N. A.," has published good descriptions of the 
known N. A. species, and I will transfer what he has said of the 
two in question — adding only some subsidiary remarks in brackets, 
and at the close : 

Caloptenus Femur-rubrum, Burm. Handb. Ent., II, 638. 
Syn. Acridium femur-rubrum, Deg. Ins. Ill, PI. 42, Fig. 5, p. 498. 

" femorale, Oliv., Encyl. Meth., 121 Ins. VI, 228. 
Grjjllus {Locusta) erythropus, Gmel., Linn. Syst. Nat. I, IV, 2086. 
"Grizzled with dirty olive and brown; a black spot extending 
from the eyes along the sides of the thorax ; [but never upon the 



16 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 



third lobe] ; an oblique yellow line on each side of the body beneath 
the wings; a row of dusky, brown spots along the middle of the 
wing-covers ; and the hindmost shanks and feet blood-red, with 
black spines. The wings are transparent, with a very pale green- 
ish-yellow tint next to the body, and are netted with brown lines. 
The hindmost thighs have two large spots on the upper side, and 
the extremity black [more correctly three such spots, or, including 
the extreme one at tip, four: Harris seems to have overlooked the 
basal one]; but are red below, and yellow on the inside. The 
appendages at the tip of the body in the male are of a long trian- 
gular form. Length [to tip of abdomen] from 0.75 to 1 inch ; ex- 
pansion of wings 1.25 to 1.75 inches." As this species, which is so 
common, varies considerably, I have concluded to give Dr. Harris's 
description without change, adding the following: Vertex but 
slightly depressed, with a minute angular expansion in front of the 
eyes; frontal costa usually but slightly sulcate ; sides parallel. 
Eyes large and rather prominent. Elytra and wings generally a 
little [usually extending about 1-6 their length beyond the abdomen] 
longer than the abdomen. The cerci of the male rather broad and 
flat [longer and narrower toward tip than in »pTetus] ; apex of last 
ventral segment entire and truncate. The yellow stripes on the 
side extend from the base of the wing to the insertion of the pos- 
terior femora. The ground color varies with localities and age, and 
most of the specimens from one or two sections appear to have un- 
spotted elytra; sometimes a reddish-brown tint prevails; at others 
a dark olive ; at others a dark purplish-brown ; yet the markings 
generally remain the same. 

Locniities. — Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, 
Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Vancouver's 
Island (?), west coast of America('?). — [Thomas, Acrididce of N. A. 
(1873), pp. 163-4. 

In addition to what Mr. Thomas states of the variation in color, 
it may be added that the dark marks on the hind thighs are in ex- 
ceptional specimens wholly wanting, and in others so confluent 
that the whole of the upper part is brown-black. In order to show 
how variable (within certain limits, however,) is the relative length 
of wing, I have made measurements of over two hundred specimens, 
all taken in St. Louis county. Mo. As the length of the abdomen 
is an uncertain criterion, varying according as this last is distended 
with eggs or contracted from one cause and another, I have made 
these measurements from the juncture of the hind thighs and 
shanks. The specimens were killed in the cyanide bottle, and 
while yet fresh and supple laid flat on a scale divided into hun- 
dredths of an inch. The furthermost hind leg was then stretched 
until the suture between shank and thigh was just visible above the 
inner border of the front wings. Careful measurements were then 



Characters of the Species. 



17 



taken, first, of the whole body ; second, of the extent of wing be- 
yond the base of shank ; third, of the extent of abdomen beyond 
the same. In the table below, only the extremes and the average 
of these measurements are given. It should be observed that as the 
abdomen shrinks slightly- in drying, and the wings do not, the 
figures in the fourth column are somewhat lower than if taken 
from dry specimens. This table of measurements will prove 
interesting when compared with that further on, giving similar 
measurements of spretus, and will conclusively show, by comparing 
the figures in the fourth column, that the specific distinction can not, 
as Mr. Walsh thought, be safely and solely left to length of wing 
beyond the abdomen; as specimens of either species may in this 
respect approach very near each other, and in exceptional cases 
entirely agree. Nevertheless, this relative length of wing has great 
value as a specific character, inasmuch as the difl:erence in relative 
length is the rule, while the converse is a rare exception. The anal 
characters of the male, (Fig. 4) will be found pretty constant and 
reliable. Yet they also vary and frequently approach spretus in the 
narrowing notched form of the tip. In the female the anal char- 
acters are of less value in distinguishing the species. 

CALOPTENUS FEMTJR-RUBRUM. 
Measurements of the Male ; in Hundredths of an Inch. 





Wl)ole length 


Length of wing 


Length of 


Length of wing 




head to tip of 
wing. 


beyond base 
of tibia. 


beyond base of 
tibia. 


beyond tip of 
abdomen. 


Lowest 


0.94 


0.02 


0.00 


00 


Hieheet 


1.12 


0.12 


0.08 


0.08 


Average 


1.03 

Ml 


0.08 
asurements of I 


0.03 
''emale. 


0.03 


Lowest 


1.03 


0.02 


0.00 


O.OO 


Highest 


i.aa 


0.15 


0.15 


0.12 


Average 


1.15 


0.08 


0.08 


0.04 



Caloptentjb spretus, Uhler Mbs. 

Syix, Acridium spretum* Thomas Trans. 111. St. Agr. Soc, 
V, 450. 

Very much like C. /emur-rubrum, Burm., the principal differ- 
ence being in the length of the elytra and wings ; a notch at the 



♦ This is called ^'■Acridium spretis, Uhler " in the article alluded to, and I very 
much doubt if the description refers to the species in question; first, because I do 
2 



18 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



tip of the last [ 5 ] ventral segment. Posterior lobe of the prono- 
tum slightly expanding ; median somewhat distinct. Elytra and 
wings pass the abdomen about one-third their length. The last 
[ (5 ] ventral segment, which is turned up almost vertically, is some- 
what tapering and is notched at the apex, which distinguishes it 
from X\iQ femur-rubrum ; the notch is small, but is distinct. Pros- 
ternal spine robust, subcylindrical, transverse. Migratory. 

Color. — Scarcely distinct from the C femur-rubrum. The occi- 
put and disk of the pronotum generally reddish-brown ; the posterior 
lobe somewhat paler than the anterior and middle. Spots, as in 
femur-rubrum., arranged in a line along the middle of the elytra ; 
these are a little larger and more abundant toward the apex. The 
head and thorax are sometimes a very dark olive-brown, at others, 
reddish-brown, and even brownish-yellow, the color deepening 
with age. The wings are pellucid, nerves dusky toward the apex ; 
when flying high and against the sun, the wings look like large 
snow flakes. 

Dimensions. — 2 Length [to tip of abdomen], 1 to 1.2 inches; 
elytra as long as the body ; posterior femora, 0.55 inch; posterior 
tibiae, 0.5 inch, s Length, 0.85 to 1 inch; elytra, 0.9 to 1.05 inches. 

As with femur-rubrum, the color of spretus is quite variable, 
and the dead specimens, from which Mr. Thomas's description is 
evidently made, convey a very imperfect idea of the living colors. 
In the fresh or newly fledged specimens the colors, taken from my 
notes in the field, are as follows: The more common specimens 
are yellowish-white beneath; glaucous across the breast and about 
mouth-parts ; pale bluish-glaucous, often with shades of purple and 
ferruginous, on the sides of the head and thorax, and the upper 
front of the face, which is sparsely and shallowly punctate and 
faintly mottled with fuscous ; olive-brown and rust-red on the 
occiput and pronotum — the rust-red relieved along the middle in the 
following characteristic marks : two stripes on occiput, diverging 
from between the eyes, and a very narrow median line — the brown 
relieving them in a series of transverse mottlings ; a broad shade on 
anterior lobes of pronotum, narrowing posteriorly and intersected 
by black along the median carina, and the three transverse sutures; 

not believe that sprelua occuh in Mnrphysboro, 111., where Mr. Thomas was then 
residing, and where he quotes Acridium spretis as being quite common; secondly, 
because the description in some respects would not apply to spretus as at present 
defined. I call attention to this discrepancy, because it is upon this (as I believe 
erroneous) reference, that Mr. Thomas quotes spretus from Illinois ; whereas I 
agree with Mr. Walsh that (as we understaad the species to-day) it is not indige- 
nous to that State. Where the anal characters of the male are not carefully 
given, it is impossible to be sure of the species. Mr. Thomas himself now 
believes that he muBt have had before him what is defined farther on as Atlanta. 



CJiaracters of the Species. 19 

and, finally, a narrower shade on the posterior lobe, dilating pos- 
teriori}' asd also with a black medial line along the carina. The 
abdomen is pale, inclining to yellow, beneath ; more or less bluish, 
or lilaceous above and marked with black especially toward base : 
it also shows more or less distinctly the pale lines and mottlings 
mentioned further on in the description of the pupa in which 
they are more distinct. These are in a general way, two pale 
longitudinal lines, diminishing anally, one subdorsal with an 
inferior coincident spot on each joint ; the other stigmatal, twice as 
broad, with an oblique dark mark dividing each joint, besides other 
smaller and less distinct spots and mottlings. In the male the anal 
parts are pale. The front wings, when closed, present a ground 
color of pale grayish-yellow, inclining to olivaceous: they are gen- * 
erally j^ellowish at base and the inner or dorsal surface is more or 
less ferruginous: there is a characteristic whitish-5'ellow medial 
shade along the basal half, rendering more conspicuous the larger 
spots of which there are about a dozen, irregularly arranged, some 
of the middle ones beingXisually confluent: when open, the wing is 
seen to be pellucid toward tip; more opaque basally owing to the 
increase of the reticulate veins, which are brown-black toward tip 
and yellow outwardly, whitish-yellow medially, and ferruginous 
inwardly, toward base: the small spots are brown, the larger black. 
The hind wings, except a yellowish or brownish shade at apex and 
along front edge, and a greenish tint at base, are transparent and 
colorless, with the larger veins on the outside brown-black, and the 
inner ones pale. The front and middle legs are yellowish, inclining 
to red, the middle thighs with slight dusky shades outside and at 
tip. The hind legs have the thighs striped with p<ile glaucous and 
reddish on the outside and upper half of inside and four black or 
dusky marks on the upper edge, especially inside, the basal smallest 
and the terminal one largest and extending beneath around the 
knee; the inferior groove is generally yellowish and the transverse 
V-shaped and two longitudinal ridges on the outside, are whitish- 
j-ellow: the shanks are coral-red with black spines; the feet some- 
what paler, with black claws. The antennae are pale yellow, or 
brownish, tipped with pale annuli; generally darkest toward tip. 
The eyes are dark olivaceous, and the ocelli (one at anterior front 
of each eye, and one in the sulcate depression of frontal costa) 
brown, with a black and a white border. 

Besides the black on wings and legs already mentioned, there 



20 The Rocky Mountain Locust 

are the following characteristic black marks : an annulus near tips 
of palpi, the inner borders of the mandibles, a spot at the upper 
outer corner of clypeus, a spot running narrowly around hind border 
of eyes and then from about the middle of the eye, broadening to 
thorax; abroad patch on the upper side of anterior half of pro- 
thorax, zig-zag beneath, and enclosing two pale subquadrate spots, 
the upper anterior one across the second suture, the lower one 
between the second and third sutures ; finally, more or less distinct 
lines along and around the meso- and meta-thoracic sutures. 

There is also a conspicuous pale yellow mark bordering supe- 
riorly the black stripe behind the eyes, the black of prothorax 
inferiorly, at outer base of front wings, from this to base of hind 
thighs and around bases of both middle and hind thighs. 

In the dead specimens all these colors become more dingy and yelloic . 
Palpi and front legs in some specimens tinged with red or blue ; 
the hind tibiae sometimes yellowish instead of red, especially in the 
middle; at other times bluish. 

Larva. — When newly hatched, the larva is of a uniform pale gray 
without distinctive marks. It soon, however, becomes mottled with 
the characteristic marks. After the first molt the hind thighs are 
conspicuously marked on the ui)per outside with a longitudinal 
black line ; the thorax is dark with the median dorsal carina and 
two distinct lateral stripes pale j-ellow, the black extending on the 
head behind the eyes. The sides of the thorax then become more 
3'ellow with each molt, the black on the hind thighs less pro- 
nounced, and the face almost always black. The occiput and ab- 
domen above are mottled with brown, the former marked with a 
fine median, and two broader anteriorlj^ converging pale lines, the 
latter with two rather broken lateral lines of the same color. 

Pupa. — The pupa is characterized by its paler, more yellow 
color, bringing more strongly into relief the black on the upper part 
of the thorax and behind the eyes ; by the spotted nature of the 
face, especially along the ridges, the black being less persistent ; 
by the isolation of the black subdorsal mark on the two anterior 
lobes of the prothorax, and by the large size of the wing-pads, 
which are now dark, with a distinct pale discal spot, and pale veins 
and borders. The hind shanks incline to bluish rather than red as in 
the mature insect. The ground-color in the immature states varies 
from pale yellow to orange-brown and even black, and from pale 
j-eliow to pure green, as in the varietj^ viridis. In manj^ of the 



Characters of the Species. 



21 



larvae there is a distinct pale line along the medio-dorsum ; in 
others there is no trace of it. 

In the following table of measurements, introduced for com- 
parison with that given of feimir-ruhrum, the same rules were 
adopted as in the other case, and particular pains were taken to get 
specimens from as many parts of the ravaged country as possible ; 
also, by study of the structural and other peculiarities of spretvs 
to guard against the chance mixing of specimens of femur-rubrum. 

CALOPTENTJS 8PRETU8. 

Measurements of the Male ; in Hundredths of an Inch. 



Lowest. 
Highest 
Average 

Lowest., 

Hisrhept 
Averaje 



Whole length 

from front of 

head to tip of 

wiug. 



1.10 
1.40 
1.28 



1.15 
1.53 
1.35 



Length of wing 

beyond base 

of tibia. 



Length of 

abdomen 

beyond base of 

tibia. 



Length of wing 

beyond tip of 

abdomen. 



0.25 
0.43 
0,34 



0.04 
0.12 
0.05 



Measurements of Female. 



0.28 
0.52 
0.35 



0.04 
0,19 
0.10 



0.20 
0.S9 
0.31 



0.13 
0.39 
0.27 



Finally, besides the structural and more reliable characters 
already given, the two species may, in general terms, be distin- 
guished by the following less reliable and more inconstant, charac- 
ters as presented in cabinet specimens : Spretus is the larger 
species; the antennae are slightly shorter and paler; the occiput 
and two anterior lobes of the prothorax are more livid and darker ; 
the third lobe of prothorax broader ; the dark, subdorsal, pro- 
thoracic mark running from the eyes less pronounced ; the oblique, 
yellow line from base of wings to base of hind thighs more often 
obsolete ; the front wings paler toward tips, more ferruginous at 
base, with larger, more conspicuous spots ; the anal abdominal 
joint of male also much paler ; the cerci and valves in the female 
generally shorter and more robust. 

\n femur-rubrum the general hue is more olivaceous and darker, 
the black mark behind eyes is broader, and that on prothorax 
also broader, more straight beneath, and seldom enclosing white 
marks; the pale stripe from base of wing to hind thighs is more 
conspicuous and the spots on wings subobsolete. 

Such are the distinguishing features between these two insects, 



22 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

when the more typical specimens of the western «j9re<w« are com- 
pared yffiih.femur-rubrum as it occurs around St. Louis. That these 
distinguishing features will lose their value in proportion as 
abundant material from all parts of the country is examined and 
compared, I have not the least doubt ; for I have already shown 
that such is the fact so far as coloration and length of wing is con- 
cerned, and the meagre material which 1 have from the East 
indicates considerable variation and approach in the more important 
structural characters. 

A THIRD, CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES WHICH IS EASILY 
CONFOUNDED WITH THE OTHER TWO. 

There is still a third species common in the Mississippi 
Valley, and particularly along the Atlantic coast, and in 
the New England States. It is smaller than either the 
Rocky Mountain or the Red-legged species, but in struc- 
ture and relative length of wing much more nearly 
resembles the former than the latter ; in other words, its 
relative length of wing enables it to fly with almost the 
same facility as its Rocky Mountain congener. This 
species I have called the Atlantic Migratory Locust, and 
it is described below, in comparison with its close allies : 

Caloptentjs Atlanis, Riley. — Length to tip of abdomen, 0.70 
— 0.85 inch ; to tip of closed wings, 0.92 — 1.05 inches. At once 
distinguished from femur-vubrum by the notched character of the 
anal abdominal joint in the male and by the shorter, less tapering 
cerci ; also by the greater relative length of wings which extend, 
on an average, nearly one-third their length beyond the tip of the 
abdomen, in the dried specimens ; also by the larger and more dis- 
tinct spots on the wings— in all which characters it much more 
closely resembles spretus than femur-rubrum. From spretus, again, 
it is at once distinguished by the smaller size, the more distinct 
separation of the dark mark running from the eyes on the pro- 
thorax and of the pale line from base of wings to hind thigh ; also 
by the anal joint in the $, tapering more suddenly and by the two 
lobes forming the notch being less marked ; also by the pale marks 
on the outside of hind thighs being much more distinctly relieved. 
From both species it is distinguished not only by its smaller size 



Characters of the Species. 23 

but by the deeper, more livid color of the dark parts, and the 
paler yellow of the light parts— the colors thus more strongly 
contrasting. 

Just as the typical femur-rubrum is at once distinguished from 
the typical spretus by the characters indicated ; so Atlanis, though 
structurally nearer to spretus, is distinguished from it at a glance 
by its much smaller size and darker, more marbled coloring. The 
contrast is all the greater in the living specimens, and I have seen 
BO specimens of spretus that at all approach it in these respects. 

Whether this is the femur-rubrum as defined by DeGeer or by 
Harris, it is almost impossible to decide, though Harris's figure of 
Jemur-rubrum better represents it than the true femur-rubrum, as 
subsequently defined by Thomas, and as found in Illinois and 
Missouri. 

It has always been a question among orthopterists, 
whether spretvs should be considered specifically distinct 
irova. femur-ritbrum, and Mr. Uhler has himself expressed 
to me his doubts as to the two being distinct. This inde- 
cision, which I myself very freely shared, may be attrib- 
uted principally to the fact that the species just described 
{Atlanis) has very generally been mistaken for femur- 
rubrum, and that the accounts of this latter rising into 
the air in swarms have in reality had reference to the 
former species. The only reference to this longer-winged 
species, in the East, that I am acquainted with, is that by 
Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., whose mention of the occurrence 
of spretus in Maine and Massachusetts, as exhibited by 
specimens in the museum of the Peabody Academy of 
Science, {Am. Naturalist^ Vol. VIII, p. 502), refers to this 
species, as I have ascertained by specimens submitted to 
me. This Atlanis as it occurs in the Mississippi Valley, 
varies somewhat from the typical form as found in the 
mountain regions of the Atlantic, being somewhat larger. 
It is found with femur-ruhrum in varying proportions, 
sometimes predominating, at others in small numbers, or 



24 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

entirely absent. As a rule it is most abundant on open 
prairies, and in spring and summer is always found in such 
situations. It matures rather later than spretus, in the 
same latitude but earlier than femur -rubrwn^ which is not 
at all infrequent in timber. 

Whether these three insects, as here defined, are really 
distinct species, or only races of one and the same, is a 
question that each individual entomologist will decide for 
himself, according to his idea of what constitutes a species. 
All discussion at the present day as to whether we are 
dealing with species or varieties in the lower classes of ani- 
mals, is more or less puerile. Naturalists have no fixed 
standard as to what constitutes a species, and are fast com- 
ing to the conviction that there is no such thing in nature, 
and that the term is conventional — an abstract conception. 
Yet it is the custom, in entomology and botany more par- 
ticularly, to separate by names, under this term species, 
forms that are separable and show constant difierences ; 
and the separation of such by the study of large material, 
and their life-histories is of far more weight and value 
than that by the examination and description, however 
detailed, of one or two individuals. As ordinary distinc- 
tions go, however, there can be no doubt as to the specific 
distinctness of these three forms, notwithstanding my own 
conviction that they merge into one another through excep- 
tional intermediate individuals. I have little doubt that 
they will cross with each other and produce fertile progeny, 
just as many species of plants are known to do ; but such 
crossing, if it occurs, must be more frequent between 
femur-ruhrum and Atlwiis than between either of these 
and spretus ; because this last is the most eflEectually sep- 
arated geographically — a fact proved alike by its dying 
out east of the 94th meridian, and by its perishing when 



Characters of the S2)eeies. 25 

artificially transported in the egg and hatotied iu the 
Atlantic States.* 

It is in this, as it is in almost every other instance where 
large material from widely different parts of the country 
is examined ; the lines which are easily drawn between 
species characterized from single individuals, break do^vn, 
and continually remind us of the arbitrary nature of spe- 
cific definitions, and of the fact that most of the species, a& 
defined among lower animals and plants, have no real ex- 
istence in nature. There are races of femur -ruhrum which 
approach even the larger differentialis as much as they 
approach spretiis. In short, without speculating on the com- 
mon origin, in the past, of all these species — and, indeed, 
of all species composing present genera — we behold, in a 
broad sense, a short-winged species {femur-rubrum) com- 
mon to the whole country between the Rocky Mountains 
and the Atlantic, giving way, in the higher altitudes alike 
of the Rocky Mountain and the White Mountain, and 
probably of the Alleghany regions, to a long-winged one ; 
and the reason why the western long-winged species 
is more disastrous than that of the East, is doubtless 
due to its larger size and to the larger extent of table land 
in which it breeds, as well as to the fact that the western 
climate is more subject to excessive drouths, which cut off 
the supply of nourishment at a time when the insects are 
acquiring wings, and thus oblige them to migrate — such 
conditions occurring much more rarely in the home of the 
eastern species. In the lower country on either side of 
the Mississippi, the typical characters of the three sjjecies 
are more liable to vary and to approach one another. The 
future orthopterist, as he studies material fi'om all parts 

* See an observation by Mr. S. S. Rathvon, of Lancaster, Pa., who concludes- 
from experiment, that the climate there is " unwholesome " to the species. (Am- 
Entoinologist, II, p. 88.) 



26 The Rooky Mountain Locust. 

of the country, will very likely write : Calojytenus femur- 
ruhrum^ DeGeer, var. sj^retus, Thomas, var. Atlanis, Riley; 
but the broad fact will remain that these three forms — 
call them races, varieties, species, or what we will — are 
separable, and that they each have their own peculiar 
habits and destiny. 

COMPARISONS OF THE THREE ALLIED SPECIES IN THEIR 
EARLY STAGES. 

Comparisons of the immature stages of these three species show 
that, when large material is examined, femur -ruhrum, and Atlanis 
are more nearly allied than this last and spretus, though, as in the 
mature insects, they approach each other through exceptional 
individuals. 

In the first stage, spretus has a decidedly ferocious look, the head 
being out of all proportion to the rest of the body. The colors are 
brown, gray and dull white, the general tint being light gray, and 
the insect presenting a mottled and speckled appearance. The 
antennse have several joints less than when mature, and are more 
thick and clavate. The frontal ridge is more prominent and deeply 
sulcate. The cerci extend beyond the rounded tip of the abdomen. 
The tarsi show the three joints, but the middle one less distinctly 
than afterwards. The medio-dorsum from vertex to near the tip of 
the abdomen, is carinate and pale. Of the dark dots and marks 
the most conspicuous and persistent (for some specimens are much 
darker than others) are, one behind the eyes, a subquadrate one on 
the side of the meta-thorax, a crescent streak on the sides of the 
swollen end of the hind femora, and two spots on the bulbous base of 
the hind tibiae. In the second stage the face with very rare excep- 
tions is pitchy black, the top of the head showing the three charac- 
teristic rows of transverse black marks on a rust-brown ground, the 
outer rows curving around the eyes, and the middle one broadest 
and divided by a narrow medial, pale line ; the rust-brown color 
continues, with more irregular black marks on the prothorax, nar- 
rowing toward its middle ; on each side of it the anterior part of 
the prothorax is black, relieved below by a conspicuous, arched 
pale line, and this again with a more or less distinct dark lateral 
mark beneath. The cheeks are mottled with rust-brown and edged 
behind with yellow; the head beneath, and palpi, except a black 
rim around tips, are pale yellowish. The other colors are much as 



Characters of the Species. 27 

in the mature insects. "With each succeeding stage the broad and 
pale streaks of prothorax intensify, and as soon as the hind wing- 
pads are turned up over the front pair, viz., in the fourth stage, the 
pale spot at the base which becomes so conspicuous in the pupa, is 
visible. The black face after the first molt is quite characteristic, 
and often endures to the pupa state. 

Atlanis, in the first stage, is distinguished by its deeper, more 
livid, or rosy, less speckled appearance, and more strongly contrast- 
ing brighter yellow venter. In the subsequent stages these 
colorational differences still prevail, and the face is not black as in 
spretus; the pale spot on the hind wing-pads is less conspicuous in 
the fourth stage, and the pupa is distinguished not only by its 
smaller size and different color, but by the narrower, more obsolete 
black marks of the prothorax and by the wing-pads being consider- 
ably shorter and smaller, the hind pair livid, with only rarely a 
touch of black at base, and with the pale spot obsolete. The pale 
streaks on the outside of the hind thighs are always conspicuous. 
It presents in fact a marked contrast to the pupa of spretus. 

Femur-ruhrum, in the early stages, is distinguished by the gen- 
erally paler, less livid and greener hue; by the black being more 
intense and contrasting more with the pale colors ; by the wing- 
pads having no pale spot, and by the outer black mark on hind 
thighs showing no pale streaks. 

Spretus, though palest when mature, has altogether the largest 
amount of black in the immature stages, and notwithstanding the 
osculant individuals, one who has great familiarity with these three 
species in life, can distinguish them with great ease at any time 
after the first molt, and can even distinguish the cast off skins. 

Further, Atlanis invariably has a pale face — yellow or greenish, 
speckled with gray-brown ; and just as invariably, the outside of 
the hind thighs, more mottled, with pale oblique streaks through 
the black. 

Femur -rubrum has a pale face but less speckled, with no pale 
streaks through black of hind thighs, and with the upper white 
mark running from the side of the prothorax much the most con- 
spicuous on the head behind the eyes. 

A GREEN VARIETY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN" LOCUST. 

In this connection I will also record the occurrence of a 
variety of spretus, in which all the pale or normally yellow- 



28 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

ish-gray parts are bright green. These green individuals 
are conspicuous among their brown brethren. In the Mis- 
sissippi Valley they generally constitute about one in a 
thousand of the progeny of invading swarms; but I have 
not noticed them among the fresh arrivals from the moun- 
tains. The green endures from the larva to the perfect 
state, and I have designated this variety as viridis. It is 
but a marked colorational variety, in a species which has 
not heretofore been known to present these colorational 
differences, and no one having a true conception of the 
differences of the three species just defined would think 
of placing this latter on the same grade. 

THE SPECIES IS PURELY AMERICAN. 

As the idea prevails among many of our farmers that 
our Rocky Mountain Locust is identical with the devastat- 
ing species of the Old World, and Mr. Z. S. Ragan, in an 
otherwise excellent essay, read at the annual meeting of 
the Missouri State Horticultural Society for 1875, gives it 
as his opinion that our locusts " came over from Asia via 
Behring's Strait, to British America, and thence extended 
from time to time over Washington Territory, Oregon, 
California, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Dakota^ 
Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, 
Indian Territory, Nebraska, part of Missouri, Iowa, Min- 
nesota and Wisconsin ;" it may be well to insist here that 
there is no foundation whatever for such an opinion, and 
that spretus is a purely American species, occurring in no 
part of Europe or Asia, 



CHAPTER 11. 



CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 

THE LOCUST PLAGUE IN THE " OLD WORLD." 

The plague of locusts is as old, nay older, than the Bible, 
where, in Exodus, we are told how they went up over the 
land of Egypt and " covered the face of the whole earth, 
so that the land was darkened ; and they did eat every 
herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the 
hail had left ; and there remained not any green thing in 
the trees, or in the herbs of the field, throughout all the 
land of Egypt." * Paulus Orosius tells us that in the year 
of the world 3800, such infinite myriads of locusts wore 
blown from the coast of Africa into the sea and drowned, 

[Fi?. 5.1 




• Migratory Locust of Europe. 

that, being cast upon the shore, they emitted a stench 
greater than could have been produced by the carcasses of 
one hundred thousand men, and caused a general pesti- 



* Exodus, X, 15. 



(20) 



30 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

lence.* Numerous, indeed, are the accounts of general 
devastation, pestilence and famine that have frequently 
followed in the wake of these locusts in the East, and 
travelers in South Africa, Asia and South Europe, have 
left us abundant records of the fearful devastations of this 
" Army of the Great God,'" as the Arabs terra these migrat- 
ing hosts. Their history is one of dire calamity and deso- 
lation ; and their devastations have become part of the 
history of nations : they have even been perpetuated in 
coins. Those who have the curiosity to acquamt them- 
selves with the history of locusts in the more ancient parts 
of the world, can not do better than refer to Kirby and 
Spence,f or to the compilation published in this country 
by Frank Cowan. J It suffices here to state that the inju- 
ries by locusts in the desert countries bordering mountain 
ranges in the East, are by no means matters of past his- 
tory only, but that they are felt occasionally at the pres- 
ent time as they have been for all time past. In 1866, 
during the same year as our previous great invasion, Alge- 
ria and the whole country in the north of Africa, was 
severely visited, causing the famine of 1867, and the epi- 
demics which followed. In 1874, these insects caused 
serious alarm in the same parts of Africa ; and M. H. 
Brocard tells us that in the three subdivisions of Constan- 
tine, Setiff and Batna, 4,820 hectolitres (about 14,000 bush- 
els) of eggs were collected. § Every year since, they have 
done serious injury in parts of Eurojje, and this very year 
(1877) reports of fearful destruction come from Tripoli 
and Barbary. The species most conspicuous in its devas- 
tations, especially in Central Europe, is the Migratory 

* Oros, Contra Pag. 1, V, c. 2. 

+ Introduction to Ent. I, Letter VII, London, 1828. 

% Curious History of Insects, pp. 101—131, Phila., 1875. 

§ Comptes Bendus, Paris Academy, Jan. 25, 1875. 



Chronological History. 41 

Detailed accounts of this invasion, and of the destitution 
and suflfering which resulted therefrom in the different 
States, will be found in the author's Seventh Annual 
Report on the Insects of Missouri. In that Report, in 
endeavoring to forecast the probable injury the following 
spring, in Missouri and adjoining country, I wrote as 
follows : 

Setting aside possible but not probable injury from a new inva- 
sion, we may consider the probable injury tliat will result in 1875, 
from the progeny of those which came in 1874. The eggs which 
are deposited on southerly hill-sides often liatch before cold weather 
sets in, if the fall be warm and protracted, while many hatch soon 
after the frost is out of the ground in the spring. Yet the great 
bulk of them will not hatch till into April. That most of the eggs 
will hatch may be taken for granted unless we have very abnormal 
climatic conditions, and unprecedentedly wet and cold weatlier 
following a mild and thawing spell. The young issuing from 
these eggs will, also, in all probability, do much damage, as they 
did in the spring and summer of 1867. But the actual daniaije 
can not be foretold, as so much depends on circumstances. In 1867, 
in many counties of Kansas and Missouri, where the ground had 
been filled with eggs the previous fall, little harm was done in the 
spring — so small a percentage of the eggs rame to anything and so 
unmercifully were the young destroyed by natural enemies. A 
severe Irost kills the young after they have hatched, where a mod- 
erate frost does not affect them. * * * Following a rather 
mild February the March of '67 was a very severe one, the ther- 
mometer frequently indicat in sr 18 degrees below zero, and accord- 
ing to Mr. W. F. Goble, of Pleasant Ridge, Kansas, who wrote aa 
excellent account of the insect, this severe weather caused many 
of the eggs to perish ; and he expresses the opinion that "judging 
from the voraciousness of those that did appear, I doubt not Kansas 
would have been made a perfect desert if all had lived." 

If after the young hoppers hatch we have much cold wet 
weather, great numbers of them will congregate in sheltered places 
and perish before doing serious harm ; but if, on the contrary, our 
sprmg and early summer prove dry and hot (which is hardly to be 
expected after the several dry seasons lately experienced) much 
damage will result from these young locusts, where no effort is 
made to prevent it. They will ruin most garden truck, do much 
injury to grain, and affect plants very much in the order previously 
indicated under the licad of "Food-plants." They will become 
more and more injurious as they get older, until, m about two 
months from the time ot hatching, or about the middle of June, 
they will begin to acquire wings, become restless, and in all proba- 
bility leave the locality where they were born, either wending 
their way further south or returning in the direction whence their 



42 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

parents came the previous year. Some bevies may even pass to 
the eastward of the limit line reached in 1874, and fall upon some 
of the counties bordering that line ; but they will lay no eggs, and 
will, in time, run their course and perish from debility, disease and 
parasites. 

The verification of the above predictions the following^ 
spring, was another proof of the soundness of the princi- 
pal theories advanced in this work ; for while the injury 
proved greater in many sections than was anticipated, yet 
the occurrences, in the main, were accurately foreshadowed. 

GENERAL OUTLOOK IN THE SPRING OF 1875. 

The spring of 1875 brought the farmers of the locust 
region to a crisis somewhat unusual and peculiar. Two 
previous years of drouth and chinch bugs, followed by the 
locust incursion of the previous fall, had armed the peo- 
ple with unusual energy, born of hope and necessity, and 
there was everywhere determination to put forth the very 
best efforts. The opening of the spring favored the exe- 
cution of this purpose. Timely rains and bright weather 
crowned the seeding time with unusual hope, and a much 
larger acreage of all spring crops was planted. The ex- 
perience of previous locust years had been generally for- 
gotten, and no effort to destroy the eggs had been made. 
The same genial sun that made wheat, oats, corn and flax 
grow apace, brought into activity myriads of the dreaded 
destroyers. Scarcely had the farmer begun to rejoice over 
a prospect of uncommon promise, when he saw his fields 
invaded by an enemy that overcame his utmost resistance. 
The severely stricken region, covering an area variously 
estimated at from 200 to 270 miles from east to west, and 
from 250 to 350 miles from north to south, and embracing 
portions of Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, presented a 
variety of experience, some portions being comparatively 
exempt from injury, while others wore an aspect of devas- 



EXPLANATION TO PLATE IL 



Country overrun in 1874, 

Country invaded in 1874, but which suffered less on 
account of being sparsely settled. 



t'A 



?^ Country ravaged in 1874, and which suffered most. 



Chronological History. 39 

of 1873 was pretty general over a strip of country running 
from the northern parts of Colorado and southern parts of 
Wyoming, through Nebraska and Dakota, to the south- 
western counties of Minnesota, and northwestern counties 
of Iowa — the injury being most felt in the last two more 
thickly settled States. The insects poured in upon this 
country during the summer and laid their eggs in all the 
more eastern portions reached. The cry of distress that 
went up from the afflicted people of Minnesota in the fall 
of that year is still fresh in mind, and the pioneers of 
Western Iowa, in addition to the locust devastations, suf- 
fered severe damage from a terrific tornado. During the 
same year great ravages were also committed by locusts 
in Southern California. 

THE INVASION OF 1874. 

We now come to the locust visitation of 1874, which 
will long be remembered as more disastrous, and as caus- 
ing more distress and destitution than any of its prede- 
cessors. The calamity was national in its character, and 
the suffering in the ravaged districts would have been 
great, and famine and death the consequence, had it not 
been for the sympathy of the whole country and the ener- 
getic measures taken to relieve the afflicted people — a sym- 
pathy begetting a generosity which proved equal to the 
occasion, as it did in the case of the great Chicago fire, 
and which will ever redound to the glory of our free Re- 
public, and of our Union. 

From a very large number of data, culled from every 
available source, the accompanying map (Plate II) has 
been prepared, which will at a glance illustrate the country 
liable to be overrun by this Rocky Mountain scourge, and 
more especially the territory in the United States east of the 
mountains, visited in 1874. This last will be seen to em- 



40 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

brace the entire States of Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, 
and portions of Wyoming, Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, 
Missouri, New Mexico, Indian Territory and Texas. The 
green color indicates the area over which the greatest 
injury was done ; -the pink, the area which suffered less, 
because more sparsely inhabited ; and the salmon, the area 
which was more or less overrun by them. The map also 
shows the eastern limit reached by the locusts. The insects 
were doubtless equally numerous in the northwestern parts 
of Wyoming and Dakota, and in Montana, for, in fact, 
they breed there ; but the country is for the most part so 
barren and so thinly settled that the reports were very 
meagre. The loss to the States mentioned did not fall far 
short of fifty millions of dollars. That much of the dam- 
age resulted from the progeny of the swarms of 1873, 
which, hatching in the country already indicated, as in- 
vaded during that year, ravaged the crops of the country 
■where they hatched, and eventually spread to the south- 
east, the records abundantly prove ; but there was like- 
wise a fresh invasion direct from the mountain region, 
which added to that of 1873, rendered the year 1874 so 
memorable. 

On account of the long continued drouth, and the rav- 
ages of the chinch bug, but little green food was left in 
Missouri and Kansas for the locusts to destroy. This, 
however, they took. In most of the invaded counties of 
Missouri, corn was already too hard to be damaged; but the 
locusts stripped every green blade, and even the husks, 
when not already killed by the chinch bug. 

The general direction from which they came was from 
the northwest, the reports showing remarkable agreement 
in this respect. The insects came nearly a month earlier 
than they did in 1866. Kansas suffered, perhaps, most 
severely. 



Clironological History. 31 

Locust {CEdipoda migratoria, Linn), though in Africa 
and Asia the Acridium perigrinum and the Caloptemcs 
Italicus have similar destructive and migratory powers. 
All these insects belong to the same family as our own 
species, and the last named, even to the same genus. 

LOCUST RAVAGES IN AMERICA. 

While the chronological record of locust invasions and 
devastations in the " Old World," is full and complete, 
the record of such invasions in our own country has never 
been fully written. The most complete record that I know 
of, is that by Alexander S. Taylor, of Monterey, Cal., pub- 
lished in the Smithsonian Report for 1858, (pp. 200 — 213), 
to which I am indebted for the earlier accounts, which 
follow. From what is here given, it is very evident that 
these insects have occasionally proved great plagues from 
the earliest settlement of the country ; and there can be 
no doubt that from time immemorial, or since our conti- 
nent assumed its present configuration, they have from 
time to time played the same role of devastators, and that 
the only exceptional circumstance about the 1874 and 1876 
irruptions, compared with those of former years, is the 
larger area of settled and cultivated country devastated, 
and the consequent greater amount of distress entailed. 

The earliest record I can find of locust injuries in 
America, is in Gage's West Indies, under date of the 
year 1632. In speaking of their visitation in Guatemala, 
he says : 

" The first year of my abiding there it pleased God to send one 
of the plagues of Egypt to that country, which was of Locusts, 
which I had never seen till then. They were after the manner of 
our Grasshoppers, but somewhat bigger, which did fly about in 
numbers so thick and infinite that they did truly cover the face of 
the sun, and hinder the shining forth of the beams of that bright 
planet. Where they lighted, either upon trees or standing corn, 
there was nothing expected but ruin, destruction and barrenness ; 



32 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

for the corn they devoured, the fruits of trees thej- ate and cou- 
sumed, and hung so thick upon the branches that with their weight 
they tore them from the body. The highways were so covered with 
them that they startled the traveling mules with their fluttering 
about their heads and feet. My eyes were often struck with their 
wings as I rode along ; and much ado I had to see my way, what 
with a montero wherewith I was fain to cover my face, what with 
the flight of them which were still before my eyes. Where they 
lighted in the moucrtains and highways, there they left behind them 
their young ones, which were found creeping upon tlie ground, 
read}' to threaten such a second year's plague, if not prevented ; 
wherefore all the towns were called, with spades, mattocks and 
shovels, to dig long trenches and thereinto bury the young ones." 

The early Jesuit missionaries of California have left nu- 
merous records of their injuries on the Pacific coast. 
Father Michael del Barco records their visitations in Cal- 
ifornia in 1722, 1746, and the three succeeding years ; 
also in 1753, 1754 and 1765. Clavigero, in his History of 
California, also gives a very full description of these pests. 

In 1827, 1828 and 1834, they destroyed all the crops in 
the rancheros and missions, and in 1838 and 1846, again 
did great damage in Upper California. " For more than 
half a century they have troubled the Argentine Republic 
in South America. In a latitude corresponding with Lou- 
isiana and Texas, but in the southern hemisphere, they have 
made agriculture worthless, and rendered the settlement 
of that magnificent country between the Andes and the 
Atlantic Ocean, by a dense population, impossible." * Dr. 
B. A. Gould gives a graphic account of a swarm of locusts 
in 1873 that devastated Cordoba, a swarm at least twenty 
miles in length and six miles in breadth, extending for an 
altitude of 5" like a thick, black trail of smoke.f Of the 
ravages of locusts in the Atlantic States, I shall speak 
more particularly in a future chapter. We have records 
of great injury fi-om locusts in New Hampshire, Massa- 

* Rev. Edw. Fontaine, in New Orleans Times, March, 1866. 
t Anier. Journ. of Sc, Dec , 1873. 



Chronological History. 33 

chusetts and Vermont, at several periods during the latter 
part of the last century. 

HISTORY OP THK RAVAGES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN 
LOCUST 

Coming now to the chronological history of the particu- 
lar Rocky Mountain species in question, anything like 
substantial records fail us, and in order to give the 
following summary of its devastations during the present 
century, I have had to ransack the files of hundreds of 
periodicals, and to depend on a number of fugitive arti- 
cles published during the last twenty-five years. 

In 1818 and 1819, according to Neill's History of Min- 
nesota, vast hordes of locusts appeared in Minnesota, 
eating everything in their course; in some cases the ground 
being covered with them to the depth of three or four 
inches. In the same years they were extremely injurious 
in the Red River country in Manitoba. In 1820, or the 
succeeding year, we hear of their falling upon the western 
counties of Missouri, as described in the following items : 

"We were informed by old residents of "West Mis«!ouri and 
some of the Indians, that long ago, I think it was in 1820, there 
W!is just such a visitation of grasshoppers as is now afflicting us. 
Th y came in the autumn by millions, devouring every green thing, 
but too late to do much harm. They literally filled the earth with 
their eggs, and then died. The next si)ring they hatched out, but 
did but little harm, and when full fledged left- for parts unknown 
Other districts of country have been visited by them, but so far as 
I could learn, they have done but little harm after the first year." — 
S. T. Kelsey, Ottawa, (now of Hutchinson,) Kansas, in Prairie 
Farmer, June 15, 1867, p. 395. 

A Missouri paper publishes a statement by an old settler that 
great numbers of grasshoppers appeart-d in Sept. 1820, doing much 
damage. The next spring they hatched out, destroi/ing the cotton, 
flax, hemp, wheat and tobacco crops ; but the corn escaped uninjured. 
About the middle of June they all disappeared, flying off in a south- 
east direction. — Western Rural, 1867. 

It is reasonable to suppose that these 1820 swarms also 
ravaged Kansas and the country to the northwest, very 
3 



34 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

much as they did in 1874 and 1870, though no records of 
the fact are to be found, for the simple reason that the 
western country was unsettled by farmers. We know that 
during the same and the previous year the crops were 
destroyed in many parts of Manitoba, and the migrations 
of 1819 and 1820 must have been very similar to those of 
1873 and 1874. 

In 1S45, and again in 1849, we have accounts, from vari- 
ous sources, of their swarming in Texas. In 1855 there 
was another very general irruption all over the western 
part of the continent. Says Mr. Taylor, in the Smithso- 
nian Report already alluded to: "Up to the 11th of 
October, 1855, and commencing about the middle of May, 
these insects extended themselves over a space of the 
earth's surface much greater than has ever before been 
noted. They covered the entire Territories of Washing- 
ton and Oregon, and every valley of the State of Califor- 
nia, ranging from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern base of 
the Sierra Nevada ; the entire territories of Utah and 
New Mexico; the immense grassy prairies lying on the 
eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains ; the dry mountain 
valleys of the republic of Mexico, and the countries of 
Lower California and Central America ; and also those 
portions of the State of Texas which resemble, in physi- 
cal characteristics, Utah and California. The records 
prove that the locusts extended themselves, in one year, 
over a surface comprised within thirty-eight degrees of 
latitude, and, in the broadest part, eighteen degrees of 
longitude. 

" On several days in June, July and August, of 1855, 
the grasshoppers (or langostas of the Spaniards) were 
seen in such incredible numbers in the valley of the Sacra- 
mento, in California; in the valley of Colima, Southwest 
Mexico ; in the valley of the Great Salt Lake ; in Western 



Chronological History. 35 

Texas, and in certain valleys of Central America, that 
they filled the air like flakes of snow on a winter's day, 
and attacked everything green or succulent with a 
voracity and despatch destructive to the hopes of the 
agriculturalists." 

They are described as reducing the Mormons of Salt 
Lake, during that year, to a simpler diet than that of John 
the Bajitist, for the people had to fall back on the locusts 
without the honey ; and they caused a good deal of sufier- 
ing in the then Territories of Kansas, Nebraska and 
Minnesota, The summer of 1855, like that of 1874, was 
exceedingly dry — the driest, in fact, that had been known 
for ten years. 

In 1856 they again made their appearance in parts of 
Utah, California and Texas, but in diminished numbers. 
In Minnesota, however,* and in Western and North- 
western Iowa their ravages during this year seem to have 
been greater. 

In 1857 we hear of them again in various parts of the 
Northwestf and around the Assiniboine settlement in 
Manitoba,! and they destroyed the entire crop of a region 
of country extending from the base of the third plateau 
to the Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles in length, and about 80 
miles in breadth, including the entire valley of the Gauda- 
loupe, and much of the territory watered by the Colorado 
and San Antonio rivers. Throughout this whole area of 
12,000 square miles every green thing cultivated by man 
was consumed, and how much further northwest the 
ravages extended is not known. § They reached as far 

east as Central Iowa. 11 

,_i 

* Rep. of Dept. of Agr., 1863. p. 36. i-.<i >J 

+ Walsh's 111. Ent. Hep , pp. 02-3; Prairie Farmer, April 25, 1868. 

X Canada Farmer, Aug. 15, 1874. 

§ Rev. E. Fontaine, loc. cit. 

i Prairie Farmer, April 25, 1868. 



36 TTie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

It is probable that part of the injury reported in 1856 
and 1857 east of the Rocky Mountains was caused by the 
progeny from the immense swarms that swept over the 
country in 1855 ; and it is quite likely that some of them 
reached Missouri, for Mr. H. B. Palmer, of Hartville, has 
related to me that, about 1857, these insects passed through 
a portion of Wright county, from north to south, stripping 
everything on their way. 

In 1860, as several Kansans have informed me, these 
locusts came and did much damage around Topeka, re- 
maining a few days and leaving the last of August. This 
must have been a limited and rather local swarm. 

In 1864 we again hear of locust invasions into Manitoba, 
Minnesota, and around Sioux City, Iowa, their eggs hatch- 
ing and the young doing much damage the following year,. 
1865. In Colorado one of the most destructive visitations 
ever known there came in 1864 from the northwest, doing 
much damage, as did the progeny in 1865. 

The year 1866 was another marked locust year, and the 
first, since that of 1855, in which the damage was sufficiently 
great and wide-spread as to attract national attention. 
The insects swarmed over the Northwest and did great 
damage in Kansas, Nebraska, and Northeastern Texas, and 
invaded the western counties of Missouri very much as 
they did in 1874. They came, however, about a month 
later than in that year. They were often so thick that 
trains were seriously delayed on account of the immense 
numbers crushed on the track. Mr. Walsh has published 
a full record of this invasion in the Report already cited.* 

In 1867 the progeny of those which fell upon the country 
the previous year did more or less damage, which was ex- 
tensively reported during the early part of the growing 



* First Annual Rep. aa Acting State Ent. of 111., pp. 83-4 (1868). 



Clironological History 37 

season. The damage, however, was not general, and good 
crops were harvested in most of the country invaded the 
year before. But later in the season fresh swarms came 
from the Rocky Mountain region, and fell upon the fertile 
plains of the Mississippi Valley. Thus there were two 
fresh invasions, the one following the other, in the years 

1866 and 1867 ; an occurrence which is quite exceptional, 
and to which the immense damage done during the latter 
year is, in great part, attributable. Mr. Walsh {loc. cit.) 
has given us, at great pains, a pretty full record of the 
doings of locusts in 1867, and from said record he makes 
it quite clear that the invasion of 1866 was followed in 

1867 by a fresh, though less extensive one, direct from 
the Rocky Mountain region. I may add that a number of 
scraps and records of the insect's doings during those two 
years, other than those he has brought together, bear out 
his deductions. The locusts also fell upon Utah in 
immense swarms in 1867. 

During the subsequent years of 1868 and 1869 we hear 
more or less of the remnants of these two vast swarms 
from the mountain region, and of their injury in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley; but their numbers are always diminishing 
and their enemies increasing, so that during the latter year 
not a healthy individual was to be found, and in 1870 the 
race had nearly vanished from the invaded country — at 
least from its eastern portions. In 1868, they were par- 
ticularly disastrous in Utah and the Red River Settlement 
of British America. 

. In 1869 there were still some remnants left of the 1867 
invasion. From Leavenworth, Kansas, I received some, 
sent in a tin box, and in reaching me there was but one 
left, which, having eaten the others, was master of the 
situation. They hatched out in countless numbers from 
the 20th to 24th of March, in Holt county. Mo., and 



38 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

were destructive east of Nemaha county, Kansas; but the 
injury that year was trifling, and the records show that 
the insects became more and more impotent. 

During this year, 1869, and the two following years, as 
will be seen from what is said in Chapter IX, many of the 
common locusts of the country were unusually numerous 
and desti-uctive ; and the reports of their injuries must 
not be confounded with those of the Rocky Mountain spe- 
cies. Mr. Cyrus Thomas i^Am. Ent. II, p. 82,) reports 
finding this species, in June, 1869, around St. Joseph, Mo. 
He says : " We arrived very early in the morning, and 
then they appeared to be somewhat torpid ; yet when 
those in the grass were disturbed by the hogs, which were 
feeding upon them, they hopped about quite briskly. 
Swarms of them, as I was informed, had been flying over 
that section for a week previous to our arrival." 

In 1870, what was probably this last species, swept down 
upon the country around Algona, Iowa, and in 1871 
the progeny " hatched by myriads till after the first of 
June," and left about the first of July.* During this year 
their injuries were also reported in parts of Utah and 
Colorado. 

In 1872 again they did some harm in parts of Kansas, 
for Mr. Albert Cooper, of Beloit, Kan., wrote me (Sept. 1, 
1872): "They came down upon us a few days ago, and 
are now eating up everything green." Mr, J. D. Putnam, 
who spent the summer of 1872 in the Rocky Mountains, 
also wrote me " that spretus was quite numerous in the 
valley of the Troublesome River." 

THE INVASION OF 18T3. 

During the years 1873 and 1874, we had a repetition, in a 
great measure, of the years 1866 and 1867, The invasion 

* Western Rural, Chicago, September 26, 1874. 



Chronological History. 43 

tation that changed the verdure of spring into the barren- 
ness of winter. 

The tract in which the injury done by the destructive 
enemy was worst, was confined to the two western tiers 
of counties in Missouri, and the four tiers of counties in 
Kansas, bounded by the Missouri river on the east. The 
greatest damage extended over a strip 25 miles each side 
of the Missouri river, from Omaha to Kansas City, and 
then extending south to the southwestern limit of Mis- 
souri. About three-quarters of a million of people were 
to a greater or less extent made sufferers. The experience 
of different localities was not equal or uniform. Con- 
tiguous farms sometimes presented the contrast of abund- 
ance and utter want, according to the caprices of the in- 
vaders, or according as they hatched in localities favorable 
to the laying of the eggs. This fact gave rise to contra- 
dictory reports, each particular locality generalizing from 
its own experience. The fact is, however, that over the 
region described there was a very general devastation, in- 
volving the destruction of three-fourths of all field and 
garden crops. 

While the injury was greatest in the area defined above, 
the insects hatched in more or less injurious numbers from 
Texas to British America — the prevalence of the insects 
in Manitoba being such that in many parts little or no 
cultivation was attempted. 

For the relief of the sufferers there came the frequent 
and growing rains, carrying spring far into the usually 
droughty summer, and giving the subsequent planting an 
admirable start. Then when the pests had increased to 
their highest number, and were working the most exten- 
sive ruin, the flood gates of the clouds were opened, and 
for thirty-six hours an unceasing torrent swept large num- 
bers of them into the streams, until the surface of most 



44 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



running water was black with locusts. For the destitu- 
tion of Kansas an extra session of the Legislature pro- 
vided partial relief. In both Kansas and Missouri, wher- 
ever the scourge extended, seeds were to some extent 
distributed by the Department of Agriculture, and by 
enterprising seedsmen, and committees were sent to more 
favored regions to obtain contributions of money, pro- 
visions and seed. 

Early in May the reports from the districts most severely 
visited were very conflicting : the insects were confined 
within short radii of their hatching grounds. The season 
was propitious, and where the insects did not occur, every- 
thing promised well. As the month drew more and more 
to a close, the insects extended the area of destruction, 
and the alarm became general. By the end of the month 
the non-timbered portions of the country most afiected 
were as bare as in winter. Here and there patches of 
Amarantus Blitum, and a few jagged stalks of Milkweed 
(Asclepias) served to relieve the monotony. An occasional 
oat field, or low piece of prairie would also remain green ; 
but with these exceptions one might travel for days by 
buggy and find everything eaten ofi", even to the under- 
brush in the woods. The suffering was great and the 
people were well-nigh disheartened. Cattle and stock of 
all kinds, except hogs and poultry, were driven away to 
more favored counties, and relief committees were organ- 
ized. Many families left the country under the influence 
of the temporary panic and the unnecessary forebodings 
and exaggerated statements of pessimists. Chronic loafers 
and idlers even made some trouble and threatened to seize 
the goods and property of the well-to-do. Relief work 
was, however, carried on energetically, and with few ex- 
ceptions no violence occurred. Early in June the insects 
began to leave ; the farmers began replanting with a will. 



Chronological History. 45 

As the month advanced, the prospects brightened, and by 
the Fourth of July the whole country again presented a 
green and thrifty appearance. 

The immediate damage was the loss of labor expended 
in planting, and the seeding for about two-thirds of the 
crop acreage of the country, to which may be added the 
destruction of the fruit and the tame grasses. Detailed 
returns of the damage done in Missouri, showed a loss of 
over fifteen millions of dollars. The amount of loss re- 
deemed by crops that succeeded after the insects left, it 
was impossible to determine ; but the amount was offset by 
the injury both temporary and permanent, to fruit, fruit 
trees, vineyards, gardens, meadows and pastures ; by the 
fact that such crops as flax, castor-beans, etc., were not 
estimated in the calculation ; and lastly, by the injury to 
stock, as the animals were necessarily driven out of the 
country, and by the general depreciation of property. 

Missouri had never before been visited by a calamity so 
appalling, and so disastrous in its results, as the locust 
ravages of 1875. Other years have brought drought, 
chinch bugs, and partial or total failure of particular 
crops, but no event ever before so completely prostrated 
the country within which the ravages occurred. The sud- 
denness and desolating power with which the attack came, 
where often the possessor of promising crops deemed them 
safe, acted as a paralysis upon those very faculties that are 
engaged in the forethought and deliberation necessary to 
self-preservation or concerted action. The farmer saw his 
green acres smiling with glorious hope to-day, and to- 
morrow, perhaps, all barren and bleak as in winter. It is 
no wonder that many communities were panic-stricken. 
Previous disaster had already brought many sections to a 
critical and suffering point, so that even during the winter 
the Legislature was appealed to for aid. Stock had been 



46 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

dying ; feed of all kinds was scarce, and whole communi- 
ties were relying on the promise of the spring. For this 
reason the locust ravages were all the more desolating and 
discouraging. 

Some cases of actual starvation were reported in the 
papers, but I was unable to learn of a single instance which 
could be authenticated by the names of the suffering 
parties. Replies to the question, " Did any cases of actual 
destitution or starvation positively occur in your county ?" 
from over a hundred correspondents in the counties in 
Missouri which suffered most, with scarcely an exception 
were to the effect that while there was great destitution 
no cases of starvation occurred. 

The great exodus of the flying swarms from our borders 
began early in June, and reached its acme about the mid- 
dle of the month. Some were leaving up to the last week 
in the month. The cheering news " they fly, they fly," 
was wired over the country from Coffeyville, Kansas, on 
the 29th of May, and a few days later these same words 
that cheered the waning spirit of General Wolfe as he saw 
that victory remained with England, and Canada was lost 
to France, passed along the lines from our western coun- 
ties, and gladdened the hearts and revived the dying 
hopes of the suffering farmers. 

I had such confidence in the correctness of the theories 
which I have advanced, that, in addressing the farmers of 
Missouri, during the spring when they were most disheart- 
ened, and while the consternation was greatest, I did not 
hesitate to assure them that their troubles were temporary; 
that the insects would leave in time to permit the growth 
of good crops of most of the products of the soil. Obliged 
to sail for Europe in June, I told them that I should return 
in the fall to find them jubilant where then they were dis- 
couraged. I came back in September. The desolation of 



Chrovological History. 47 

June had been followed by a luxuriance of vegetation 
without parallel. The change wrought in three months 
was magical ; and as I addressed them again in the midst 
of plenty, the farmers felt thankful for the confidence and 
encouragement they had received in such different circum- 
stances, three months before. 

DESTINATION OF THE DEPARTING SWARMS OF 1875. 

That the insects which left the Mississippi Valley in 
1875 reached into British America there is abundant proof. 
The Winnipeg Standard of August 19, 1876, as quoted 
by Professor Whitman, says : 

The locusts which hatched in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska 
[in 1875], iu an area of 250 miles from east to west, and 300 miles 
from north to south, took flight in June, and invariably went north- 
west, and fell in innumerable swarms upon the regions of British 
America, adjoining Forts Pelly, Carlton and Ellice, covering an 
area as large as that they vacated on the Missouri River. They 
were reinforced by the retiring column from Manitoba, and it 
seemed to be hoping against hope that the new swarms of 1876 
would not again descend upon the settlements in the Red River 
Valley. Intelligence was received here that the insects took flight 
from the vicinity of Port Pelly on the 10th of July, and then fol- 
lowed a fortnight of intense suspense. 

Professor G. M, Dawson, of Montreal, wrote me : " You 
may be interested in knowing that the northward flying 
swarms in 1875 penetrated a considerable distance into the 
region west of Manitoba, while most of the insects hatch- 
ing in the latter province went southeastward when 
winged, and that large numbers got at least as far east as 
the Lake of the Woods." In an interesting paper in the 
Canadian N'aturalist, on the " Appearance and Migrations 
of the Locusts in Manitoba and the N. W. Territories in 
the Summer of 1875," Professor Dawson further gives 
many other valuable records, some of which, as bearing on 
the question under consideration, I quote entire, as they 
will hardly bear condensing. 



48 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



From the reports now received from Manitoba and various por- 
tions of the Northwest Territory, and published in abstract with 
these notes, it would appear that during the summer of 1875 two 
distinct elements were concerned in the locust manifestation. 
First, the insects hatching in the province of Manitoba and sur- 
rounding regions, from eggs left by the western and northwestern 
invading swarms of the previous autumn ; second, a distinct 
foreign host, moving, for the most part, from south to north. The 
locusts are known to have hatched in great numbers over almost the 
entire area of Manitoba, and westward at least as far as Fort Ellice 
on the Assiniboine river (long. 101° 20'), and may probably have 
been produced, at least sporadically, in other portions of the cen- 
tral regions of the plains ; though in the summer of 1874, this 
district was nearly emptied to recruit the swarms devastating Mani- 
toba and the Western States, and there appears to have been little 
if any influx to supply their place. Still further west, on the 
plains along the base of the Rocky Mountains, from the 49th 
parallel to the Red Deer river, locusts are known to have hatched 
in considerable numbers — but of these more anon. 

Hatching began in Manitoba and adjacent regions in favorable 
localities as early as May 7th, but does not seem to have become 
general till about the 15th of the month, and to have continued 
during the latter part of May and till the 15th of June. * * * 

The destruction of crops by the growing insects, in all the 
settled regions was very great, and in many districts well nigh 
complete. The exodus of these broods began in the early part of 
July, but appears to have been most general during the middle and 
latter part of that mouth, and first of August. The direction taken 
on departure was, with very little exception, southeast or south. 
It is to be remarked, that as there does not seem to have been dur- 
ing this period auy remarkable persistency of northwest or westerly 
winds, the insects must have selected those favoring their intended 
direction of migration, an instinct which has very generally been 

observed elsewhere. 

* * 4f- * * * * 

Foreign swarms from the south crossed the 49th parallel with a 
wide front stretching from the 98th to the 108th meridian, and are 
quite distinguishable from those produced in the country, from the 
fact that many of them arrived before the latter were mature. 
These flights constituted the extreme northern part of the army 
returning northward and northwestward from the States ravaged in 
the autumn of 1874. They appeared at Fort Ellice on the 13th 
of June, and at Qu'Appelle Fort on the 17th of the same month, 
favored much no doubt by the steady south and southeast winds, 
which, according to the meteorological register at Winnipeg, pre- 
vailed on the 12th of June and for about a week thereafter. After 
their first appearance, however, their subsequent progress seems to 
h'lve been comparatively slow, and their advancing border very 
irregular in outline. They are said to have reached Swan Lake 
House — the most northern point to wliich they are known to have 
attained— about July 10th ; while Fort Pelly, further west, and 







f Li ^T2 - ^ , \ /" 




EXPLANATION TO PLATE IIL 



^'^ Country overrun in 1870. 

Country in which eggs were laid sparsely in 1870. 

Country in which eggs were laid thickly. Most 
threatened in 1877. 



Cltronological History. 49 

nearly a degree further south, was reached July 20th, and about 
seven days were occupied in the journey from there to Swan River 
Barracks, a distance of only ten miles. 

It is thus obvious not only that vast swarms reached 
into British America in 1875, from our own country, but 
that the young hatched there from swarms that had come 
the previous year from the farther Northwest. 

There was, therefore, north of the 49th j^arallel, a repe- 
tition of the devastation we were at the time experienc- 
ing in the States ; the insects hatching there in bulk just 
about the time they were leaving Texas on the wing. In 
these facts we get an explanation of 

THE INVASION OP 1876. 

la opposition to contrary opinion widely circulated, I expressed 
my belief, a year ago, that in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, first, 
there would not hatch as many locusts in the spring as would natu- 
rally hatch in ordinary seasons from indigenous species; second, 
that, compared with other parts of the country, those States most 
ravaged by locusts in the spring and early summer of 1875 would 
enjoy the greater immunity, during the same season of 1876, not 
only from locust injuries, but from the injuries of most other nox- 
ious insects ; that, in sliort, the people of the ravaged section had 
reason to be hopeful rather than gloomy; that they certainly would 
not suffer in any general way from locust injuries in the early 
season ; and that the only way in which they could suffer from the 
migrating pest was bv fresh swarms, later in the year, from the far 
Northwest.— Mo. Ent Rep. 8, l-'iS-G. 

Like the other opinions as to the future doings of this 
insect that I had felt warranted in expressing in an unqual- 
ified way, this last was fully justified by subsequent events. 

From most of the so-called Western States the crop 
returns were favorable, though the harvest was in many 
sections impeded, as it was in 1875, by too much wet 
weather. In no part of the country was the outlook more 
flattering than in Western Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Iowa, and the country so seriously ravaged by locusts the 
previous year, and the farmers throughout that section of 
country had seldom been freer from insect ravages, or 
4 



oO The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

more hopeful. The freedom from other noxious insects 
was everywhere apparent. In parts of the Northwest, as 
in the East, the conditions were very different from what 
they were in the Mississippi Valley, and the crops suffered 
more or less from excessive drouth. In Colorado there 
was some alarm, as the insects hatched in many localities, 
but by no means so generally as in the previous years. 
By persevering effort the farmers generally got the mas- 
tery over them and made good crops. In Minnesota, 
again, in some of the southern counties, where eggs were 
laid, considerable damage was done, though not nearly so 
much as in 1875. During the second week of July the 
locusts took wing from that region, and it is interesting to 
note that they instinctively took a north and northwest 
course, just as in the previous year the fledged insects had 
done a few weeks earlier in the season from Missouri and 
the adjacent country to the west. Numerous dispatches 
to St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other papers, show conclu- 
sively that the general direction taken was northwest, 
and that when the wind was unfavorable the insects 
awaited a change. 

Such was the condition of things up to the early part of 
August, and I began to hope that the country that had 
suffered so much of late years by locust devastations, was 
at last free from the scourge, and would not be overrun 
again for some years to come. But the great drouth which 
prevailed in the Northwest appears to have favored the 
hatching and development of the insects in that section ; 
and no sooner had our people begun to congratulate them- 
selves on the departure of the pests, than reports came of 
the movement of new swarms from the north and north- 
west. From that time on, till the approach of winter, 
their movements were constantly reported and they even- 
tually overswept a large part of the Western country. 



Chronological History. 51 

A detailed record of this invasion published in the 9th 
Mo. Entomological Report, makes it manifest that the 
locusts that hatched and did more or less damage in 
Minnesota early in the year, endeavored to get away to the 
northwest as soon as they acquired wings. They were 
subsequently repulsed and borne back again by the winds 
to their hatching places ; thence south and southwest into 
Iowa and Nebraska. As they rise and fly from day to day 
they concentrate and condense, since in passing over a 
given area during the hotter parts of the day new acces- 
sions are constantly being made to the flying hosts which, 
with serried ranks, descend in the afternoon. Thus, in 
returning, the swarms were thicker and more destructive in 
places than they were in leaving. Yet the column which 
thus came back to Minnesota and passed to the south and 
southwest was more straggling than in 1874, and by the 
middle of the month it had spent its force and left eggs^ 
throughout most of the country traversed. Had the 
invasion consisted of these alone, the damage would have 
been but slight, and the insects would hardly have reached 
into Kansas. Their eggs, laid in August, were far more 
liable to injury and to premature hatching than those laid 
later. But fi*esh swarms that hatched in Dakota, and 
farther northwest, followed on the heels of the Minnesota 
swanns, passing over much of the same country to the 
east and southward into Colorado, and eventually over- 
running the larger part of Nebraska and Kansas, the 
western half of Iowa and some of the western counties 
in Missouri, and reaching into Indian Territory, Texas, and 
parts of Arkansas. 

The extent of the region invaded will appear by referring 
to the map (Plate III). Coming generally later than in 
1874, they did less damage, and the farmers were in so 
much better condition to withstand injury, that it was 



52 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

much less felt. In most sections visited, part of the 
migrating hosts remained to lay eggs ; and the invasion 
of 18V6 is remarkable, as compared with that of 1874, for 
the large extent of country supplied with eggs. Another 
fact is noticeable, viz., that the very parts of Minnesota in 
which eggs were laid in 1875, and the portions of Missoui-i 
and Kansas in which they were most thickly laid in 1874, 
escaped in 1876. I can not believe, however, that this is 
anything more than coincidence. 

A careful review of the invasion, shows that it was made 
up, 1st, of such insects as hatched out in Southwestern 
Minnesota, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Dakota; 
2nd, of additions to these from Montana and British 
America. To what extent those in either of these cate- 
gories were made up of the progeny from the insects that 
left our country in 1875 we shall never be able accurately 
to determine. The proportion of parasitized and diseased 
insects that left Missouri, doubtless became less among 
those which hatched and rose from the farther north and 
west, and we may, I think, take it for granted that the 
larger part of the swarms that reached Montana and 
British America, laid eggs. In addition to the vast swarms 
which invaded the Northwest from the south and southeast, 
there were in 1875, as Prof. Dawson shows, others that 
hatched in the Northwest, pouring from British America 
into our Northwest territory. There were, in fact, in 
Manitoba and large parts of the Northwest, two grand 
opposing movements of the winged insects, which thus to 
some extent replaced each other and coalesced about our 
northern boundary. Bearing this in mind, we can under- 
stand the increased area in the Northwest over which eggs 
were laid that year, and from which the 187G swarms had 
their source. As no eggs were laid in Manitoba, while the 
young are known to have abounded in the mountain region 



Chronological History 53 

to the west of that province, it is more than probable that 
the principal source of the 1876 invasion was Montana 
and the Saskatchawan and Swan River countries. The 
question as to how far the Northwest breeding grounds are 
recruited, by the insects which hatch in the more fertile 
country which I have designated as outside the species' 
natural habitat, is a most interesting one ; for if thus 
recruited, there is all the greater incentive for us to exter- 
minate the young insects which hatch with us. All such 
questions can be settled, if at all, only by a thorough 
study of the subject by a properly constituted commission, 
such as that now charged with the work, under the Depart- 
ment of the Intei'ior. 

EASTERN LINE REACHED. 

A study of the eastern limit of the invasion of 1876, 
compared with that of 1874, shows that it is peculiar in 
reaching farther east in Minnesota and Iowa, and farther 
south and east in Texas. The limit-line — extending from 
Clay county, Minnesota ; bulging toward St. Paul, reach- 
ing southwardly to the center of Iowa; thence westwardly 
receding to Lawrence, Kansas, and bulging again to South- 
west Missouri — is more irregular between the 36th and 
46th parallels than it was in 1874. On an average, how- 
ever, it does not extend east of the 94th meridian. 

THE OMAHA CONFERENCE. 

As an incident of the 1876 invasion, the Conference of 
the Executives of those States and Territories which most 
suffer from locust ravages, and of scientific gentlemen 
interested in the subject, held at Omaha, Neb., on the 
25th and 26th of October, is worthy of mention. The 
following gentlemen, with the writer, were in attendance: 
Prof. Cyrus Thomas, of Illinois; Gov. Sam'l J. Kirkwood, 



54 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

of Iowa ; Gov. Thomas A. Osborne, of Kansas ; Gov. 
Silas Garber, Ex-Gov. Robert W. Furnas, Prof. C. D. 
Wilber, Prof. A. D. Williams, and Hon. Geo. W. Frost, 
of Nebraska ; Gov. John S. Pillsbury, Pennock Pusey, 
and Prof. A. Whitman, of Minnesota ; Gov. John L. Pen- 
nington, of Dakota ; and Gov. C. H. Hardin, of Missouri. 
The Conference was called at the invitation of Gov. 
Pillsbury, in the hope of obtaining concert of action in 
the best means of meeting or averting the evil. After a 
two-days' session, and an instructive interchange of expe- 
riences and opinions, and the passage of a series of resolu- 
tions, a committee consisting of John S. Pillsbury, Pen- 
nock Pusey, and myself, was appointed to prepare for 
publication the official report of Proceedings, together 
with a summary of the best means known for counteracting 
the evil ; and 10,000 copies of a pamphlet of 72 pages 
were accordingly published last fall. By being widely 
distributed, this pamphlet has undoubtedly done much 
good, and has also had no small share in bringing about 
certain much needed State and National lesrislation. 



CHAPTER III 



NATIVE HOME AND GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF 
THE SPECIES EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS. 

SOURCE OF THE DEVASTATING SWARMS THAT REACH INTO 
THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

There is some difference of opinion as to the precise 
natural habitat and breeding place of the Rocky Moun- 
tain Locust, but the facts all indicate that it is by nature 
a denizen of high altitudes, breeding in the valleys, parks 
and plateaus of the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, 
and especially of Montana, Wyoming and British America. 
Prof. Cyrus Thomas, who, through his connection with 
Hayden's geological survey of the Territories, has had an 
excellent opportunity of studying it, reports it as occurring 
from Texas to British America and from the Mississippi 
(more correctly speaking, the line I have indicated) west- 
ward to the Sierra Nevada range. But in all this vast 
extent of country, and especially in the more southern 
latitudes, there is every reason to believe that it breeds 
continually only on the higher mountain elevations, where 
the amosphere is dry and attenuated, and the soil sel- 
dom gets soaked with moisture. Prof. Thomas found it 
most numerous in all stages of growth along the higher 
valleys and canyons of Colorado, tracing it up above the 
perennial snows, where the insect must have hatched, as it 
was found in the adolescent stage. In crossing the moun- 

(55) 



56 The Rocky 2Ioimtain Locust. 

tains in Colorado it often gets chilled in passing the snows, 
and thus perishes in immense numbers. The bears of this 
locality desire no better condiment wherewith to season 
their usual repasts. 

My own belief is that the insect is at home in the higher 
altitudes of Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, 
Northwestern Dakota, and British America. It breeds in 
all this region, but particularly on the vast hot and dry 
plains and plateaus of the last named Territories and on 
the plains west of the mountains ; its range on the east 
being bounded, perhaps, by that of the buflalo grass. Mr. 
"Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, Colorado, shows that the 
insects hatch in immense quantities in the valleys of the 
three forks of the Missouri river and along the Yellow- 
stone, and that, when fledged, they move on from there 
in a southeast direction at about the rate of 10 miles per 
day. The swarms of 1867 were traced, as he states, from 
their hatching grounds in West Dakota and Montana, 
along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains, into the 
valleys and plains of the Black Hills, and between them 
and the main Rocky Mountain range.* 

In all this immense stretch of country, as is well known, 
there are extensive tracts of barren, almost desert land, 
while other tracts for hundreds of miles bear only a scanty 
vegetation ; the short buffalo grass of the more fertile 
prairies giving way, now to a more luxurious vegetation 
along the water courses, now to the sage bush and a few 
cacti. Another physical peculiarity is found in the fact 
that not only does the spring on these immense plains some- 
times open as early, even away up into British America, as 
it does in Chicago, or exceptionally even in St. Louis, but 
the vegetation is often dried and actually burned out 

* SeeHayden's Geol. and Geogr. Survey of the Territories, 187J, pp. 282-3. 



Home, and Range East of Mountains. T^7 



in the early part of July, so that not a green thing is to be 
found. Our Rocky Mountain Locust, therefore, hatching 
out in untold myriads in the hot plains, five or six thou- 
sand feet above the sea level, will often i^erish in immense 
numbers if the scant vegetation of its native home dries 
up before it acquires wings; but if the season is propitious 
and the insect becomes fledged before its food supply is 
exhausted, the newly acquired wings prove its salvation. 
It may also become periodically so prodigiously multiplied 
in its native breeding places that, even in favorable 
seasons, everything green is devoured by the time it be- 
comes winged. 

In either case, prompted by that most exigent law of 
hunger — spurred on for very life — it rises in immense 
clouds in the air to seek for fresh pastures where it may 
stay its ravenous appetite. Borne along by the prevailing 
winds that sweep over these immense treeless plains from 
the northwest, often at the rate of fifty or sixty miles an 
hour, the darkening locust clouds are soon carried into the 
more moist and fertile country to the southeast, where with 
sharpened appetites, they fall upon the crops like a plague 
and a blight. Many of the more feeble or of the more 
recently fledged perish, no doubt, on the way ; but the 
main army succeeds, with favorable wind, in bridging over 
the parched country which offers no nourishment. The 
hotter and drier the season, and the greater the extent of 
the drouth, the earlier will they be prompted to migrate, 
and the farther will they push on to the east and south. 

My late friend, Benj. D. Walsh, was of the opinion that 
the swarms which pour down upon the Mississippi Valley 
come from the mountain regions of Colorado. My own 
belief, first announced in 1874, that they originate in the 
Northwest, has been very strongly confirmed by subsequent 
events ; and however much some of the Western States 



58 Tlte Rocky Mountain Locust. 

may suffer from swarms from the mountain regions fartlier 
south, it seems quite certain that the extensive and disas- 
trous swarms which come late in summer and fall, and 
which reach as far east as Missouri, have their origin in the 
vast plains regions of the Northwest lying east of the 
mountains, in Montana, Dakota, and the Saskatchawan 
and Eed River countries of British America.* Some wri- 
ters find it difficult to believe that the insect can fly over 
such immense distances, and they believe that the swarms 
originate (as Mr. S. H. Scudder, of Cambridge, puts it), 
" in the immediate vicinity of the regions which they 
devastate." 

Such language is not very definite, since much of the 
country devastated must be in the immediate vicinity of 
the hot, dry plains and plateaus in which I believe the 
species is more particularly at home. The swarms that 
occasionally, during summer, devastate the country in 
which the species is not indigenous, must necessarily be 
the progeny of insects developed at no great distance 
from the sections they invade, whether they come from 
Minnesota southward, from Colorado eastward, or from 
Texas northward ; and I endeavored to draw the distinc- 
tion in 1874 between these summer swarms and the more 
disastrous fall swarms. On this point the Minnesota 
commission remarks (Special Rep. to Gov. Davis, p. 25) : 

It is plain that locusts hatched in Colorado and regions to the 
south and southwest of Minnesota, acquire wings in lime to allow 
them to reach tbis State in the former half of June. This is shown 
by the time when the invasion occurred in 1873, and by the immense 
fliglits of locusts -which passed over Nebraska and Dakota to the 
nol'thward in .Tune, 1875. It seems to be a common impression that 
the locusts which have invaded Minnesota at other times were 
hatclud in Montana, Northwestern Dakota and British America, 
and this is rendered probable by what few facts we know, and by 



* Theo;iginof the swarms that devastate the Pacific slope is probably in 
the similar high plains regions of Washington, Idaho and Oregon. 



Home, and Range East of Mountains. 59 

the time and direction from whicli they came. These attacks are 
all represented as coming from the west, north or northwest, and 
reached the Red River Settlement in the last week of July, 1818, 
the Upper Mississippi about the same time in 1856, the western line 
of the* State in the former half of July, 1864, and on July 15th, 
1874. In the last three cases the invasions did not reach their 
farthest limit until a considerable portion of the crops had been 
harvested. 

If Mr. Scudder means that the hordes that in August 
and September occasionally overrun the whole territorj' 
which I have indicated as outside the insect's natural 
habitat, originate within or upon the borders of that terri- 
tory — the country south of the 44th parallel and east of 
the 100th meridian — then the facts are entirely against his 
supposition. The late swarms of 1874 and 1876, are known 
to have traveled from five hundred to six hundred miles 
after having reached the more thickly settled country. 
Late appearance and late egg-laying imply late hatching, 
which, in the main, must needs have taken place in north- 
erly or sub-alpine regions. The invasion of the northern 
regions of Minnesota, Dakota, Montana and Manitoba, 
from the still farther northwest, also makes it clear that 
the insects come from beyond. The theory of short 
flights and development, in the immediate vicinity of the 
country devastated, will not ansAver for the late disastrous 
and general irruptions like those of 1866, 1874 and 1876 ; 
and in discussing this question the difference between 
these irruptions and the earlier, more frequent and less 
disastrous ones, should always be borne in mind. 

The species, as defined in this work, and as it swoops 
down from the mountain region, does not, as some claim, 
occur every year in Missouri, Texas, Kansas, or any of the 
country to which I have indicated it is not indigenous. 
It occurs there only as the dwindling progeny of the 
swarms from the west or northwest, and never becomes 
acclimated. I have traveled through Iowa, and from 



60 Tlie BocJcy Mountain Locust. 

Omaha to Denver, collecting plants and capturing insects 
along the route on every occasion ; I have traveled exten- 
sively in Kansas, Indian Territory and Texas, always 
collecting ; I have been overwhelmed in the latter State 
with swarms of locusts while in front of an engine, and 
yet, among all the locusts collected, I have never found 
the genuine spretus, except as it came from the west or 
northwest, or hatched from eggs laid by those which had 
thence come. It can not be found there any more than it 
can be found in the western counties of Missouri, except 
as the progeny of invading swarms. There is no instance 
on record of the species, when hatching out in any of this 
country, remaining long enough to lay eggs, even suppos- 
ing it capable of domg so in such circumstances. We 
find it multiplying continuously west and north of the 
boundary indicated ; pushing annually, in detachments, 
eastward from the mountains to the west, and southeast- 
ward from the country to the northwest; but only at long 
intervals does it sweep down in countless myriads and in 
extended and devastating swarms from the extreme north- 
west. Just beyond the confines of the country in which 
it permanently multiplies, it follows that it will more 
often do injury than farther east and south ; it will also 
hold its own longer, but sooner or later it vanishes from 
the country beyond those confines. It either vacates the 
territoiy on the wing, or is destroyed by influences adverse 
to its well-being. 

In placing these confines along the 44th parallel and the 
100th meridian, I think I have given the utmost southern 
and eastern limits. It is even doubtful whether the spe- 
cies permanently multiplies in much of the country for 
some degrees north and west of the territory thus indi- 
cated. Prof. Thomas indicates the eastern boundary as 
along the 103rd meridian, while Mr. G. M. Dawson, in the 



Home, and Range East of Mountains. 61 

pamphlet already referred to, says that " north of the 
49th parallel, the whole area of the third or highest 
prairie-plateau, and probably mnch of the second, are 
congenial breeding places, and here the locusts are always 
in greater or less numbers." Regarding the western 
boundary, nothing struck Prof. Thomas* as more singular 
than the few specimens of spretxis collected west of the 
mountain range by the Hayden Geological Survey, from 
which he infers that the line of the survey was along the 
southwest border of its district. Mr. J. D. Putnam, of 
Davenport, Iowa, who spent July, August and September 
of IS 75, in Utah, also informs me that he did not meet 
with a single specimen. 

That the native home of the species is what naturalists 
understand as sub-alpine, is rendered pretty certain, also, 
by the fact of its abounding to such an extent in British 
America, and of its breeding in the higher mountain ele- 
vations, even up to the perennial snows. In fact, so high 
up does it breed that it often hatches so late m the season 
as to be overtaken by the cold of the succeeding winter 
before acquiring growth, when of course it perishes with- 
out begetting. The truly alpine country can not, therefore, 
be its native home ; and those found breeding at such a 
height must be the progeny of others which flew from the 
plains, either east or west of the mountains. Physical 
barriers on the high mountain summits put a limit to the 
insect's extension and propagation, just as they do in the 
Mississippi Valley. 



* Preface to his Report upon the Collections of Orthoptera made in Nevada, 
Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, in 1871, 1872, 1873, and 
1874, by Hayden'e Geol. Surv. of the Terr. (187(i). 



62 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

IT CAN NOT PERMANENTLY THRIVE OR PERPETUATE ITSELF 
IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

The comparatively sudden change from the attenuated 
and dry atmosphere of five to eight thousand feet or more 
above the sea level, to the more humid and dense atmos- 
phere of one thousand feet above that level, does not 
agree with the species. The first generation hatched in this 
low country is more or less unhealthy, and those that attain 
maturity do not breed, but quit the country. At least such 
is the case in the whole of the Mississippi Valley proper. 
As we go west or northwest and approach nearer and 
nearer the insect's native home, the power to propagate 
itself and become localized, becomes, of course, gi-eater 
and greater, until at last we rea*.- i the country where it is 
found perpetually. Thus in the western parts of Kansas 
and Nebraska, in parts of Colorado and Minnesota, in fact, 
in all the region indicated by the pink color in Plate I, the 
progeny from the mountain swarms may multiply to the 
second or even third generation, and wing their way in 
more local and feeble bevies to the country east and south. 
Yet eventually they vanish from that region and perish, 
unless fortunate enough to be carried back by favorable 
winds to the higher country where they flourish. There 
is nothing more certain than that the insect is not autoch- 
thonous in Texas, West Arkansas, Indian Territory, West 
Missouri, Kansas, Western Iowa, Nebraska, or even Min- 
nesota ; and whenever it overruns any of those States it 
sooner or later abandons them. The same also is true of 
parts of Colorado, Montana, Dakota, and even of Manitoba. 

THE CONDITIONS WHICH PREVENT THE PERMANENT SETTLE- 
MENT OF THE SPECIES IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

The conditions which determine the geographical limits 
in which a species can exist, are often complex, and it is 



Home, and Range East of Mountains. 63 

not generally easy to say precisely what they are. Assum- 
ing that I have correctly placed the native home of the spe- 
cies in the higher, treeless and scarcely habitable plains of 
the Rocky Mountain region of the Northwest, and that it 
is sub-alpine, we may perhaps find, in addition to the com- 
paratively sudden change from an attenuated and dry to 
a more dense and humid atmosphere, another tangible 
barrier to its permanent multiplication in the more fertile 
country to the southeast, in the lengthened summer season. 
As with annual plants, so with insects (like this locust) 
which produce but one generation annually and whose 
active existence is bounded by the spring and autumn 
frosts — the duration of active life is proportioned to the 
length of the growing season. Hatching late and develop- 
ing quickly in its native haunts, our Rocky Mountain 
Locust when born within our borders (and the same 
will apply in degree to all the country where it is not 
autochthonous), is in the condition of an annual north- 
ern plant sown in more southern climes ; and just as this 
attains precocious maturity and deteriorates for want of 
autumn's ripening influences, so our locust must in such 
circumstances deteriorate. If those which acquired wings 
in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, etc., early in June of 1875, had 
staid long enough to lay eggs, supposing them capable of 
doing so, these eggs would inevitably have hatched prema- 
turely, and the progeny must in consequence have perished. 
There would have been no time for a second generation to 
mature : such a second generation would have been cut ofi" 
by winter's frosts without perpetuating. 

Being a firm believer in change by modification in what 
we call species, and that climatic conditions play a most 
important part in causing this change, and that they act 
more rapidly with lower animals than most evolutionists 
grant, the idea has been very strong in my mind that the 



6'4 The Rocky Ifountain Locust. 

species might become profoundly modified in the direction 
of Atlanis in the course of two or three generations in 
the country to the southeast, and that in this way and 
through miscegenation with our native species, its extinc- 
tion from our territory might also be accounted for. The 
same possibility has also been suggested by Prof. Thomas — 
a professed anti-Darwinian — in an elaborate paper pub- 
lished in October, 1875, in the Chicago Inter-Ocean^ and, 
as bearing on this point, I will state that the specimens 
which hatched in and left the western counties of Missouri 
in 1875, were, on an average, somewhat darker and smaller 
than their parents. But after fully digesting all the facts, 
I am convinced that these influences play a very unimpor- 
tant part, if any; and that they can not be considered as 
factors in the problem. All that could get away from the 
regions of Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska 
ravaged in 1875, did so ; and if I may judge from expe- 
rience in Missouri, those that could not, perished, so that 
in the fall not a remnant of the army was left. 

But whatever the causes, the fact of debility, disease 
and deterioration in, as well as migration from, the more 
fertile southeastern country which the species occasionally 
devastates, stands forth clearly and can not be gainsaid. 
The following observations from careful observers may 
be placed on record here : 

Mr. Riley is of the opinion that the grasshoppera run out in a 
few generations after they leave their native sandy and gravelly 
soil. My experiments so far as they go, verify that opinion. For 
several years I have caught grasshoppers during early summer that 
came fresh from the direction of the mountains, and by attaching 
their legs with fine silk threads to a small spring balance, found 
that their physical strength was from twenty-five to fifty per cent, 
greater than that of grasshoppers treated the same way that were 
hatched in Nebraska or in States further eastward or northward. 
The same result was reached by caging them, and ascertaining how 
lonir they would live without food, and also bj^ vivisection. In some 
places, also, the eggs that were laid in different years since 1864 did 



Home^ and Range East of Mountains. Qo 

not hatch out. The changes from extreme wet to dry, and from 
cold to hot weather, or some other unknown causes, seem to sap 
their constitutional vigor. Were it not for this, long ere now these 
grasshoppers would, from their enormous numbers, have desolated 
tlie whole country as far east as the Atlantic. — [Prof. Sam'l Aughey, 
of the University of Nebraska, in the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal. 

I have observed hundreds of winged locusts fall to the ground 
during flight, either already dead or soon dying. These upon exam- 
ination have generally proved to contain no parasites, and I judge 
that their death was in consequence of impaired strength, this 
second generation raised in an unnatural climate not equaling in 
vitality the first generation, and succumbing to the fatigue conse- 
quent upon extended flight. — [Prof. F. H. Snow, of Kansas State 
University, in Observer of Nature. 

IT WILL NEVER DO SERIOUS HARM EAST OF THE NINETY- 
FOURTH MERIDIAN. 

A full month before a single specimen of the Rocky- 
Mountain Locust reached Missouri in 1874, I predicted 
that it would come into the western counties too late to do 
any very serious damage, and that it would not reach 
beyond a given line. To the many anxious correspondents 
who, fearing that the State was to be overrun, as Kansas 
was being overrun, wrote for my opinion and advice, I 
replied : " Judging of the future by the past, the farmers 
of Missouri, east of the extreme western tier of counties, 
need fear nothing from locust invasions. They may jjlant 
their fall grain without hesitation, and console themselves 
with the reflection that they are secure from the unwel- 
come visitants which occasionally make their way into the 
counties mentioned, especially into those of the northwest 
corner of the State. The same holds true of the farmers 
of Illinois and of all the country east of a line drawn at a 
rough estimate, along longitude 17° west from Washing- 
ton." 

This prediction was fully borne out by subsequent events, 
and I have ever insisted that east of the line indicated 
there is no danger from this locust. 

5 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



But, it will be asked, " Upon what do you base this con- 
clusion, and what security have we, that at some future 
time the country east of the line you have indicated may 
not be ravaged by these plagues from the mountains ? " I 
answer, that during the whole history of the species as I 
have attempted to trace it in the chronological account 
already given, the insect never has done any damage east 
of the Ime indicated, and there is no reason to suppose 
that it ever will do so for the future. There must of course 
be some limit to its flight, as no one would be foolish 
enough to argue that it could, in one season, fly to Eng- 
land or France, or even to the Atlantic ocean ; and as its 
flight is by law limited to one season — for the term of life 
allotted to it is bounded by the spring and autumn frosts — 
so its power of flight is limited. And as the historical 
record proves that it never has done any damage east of 
the line indicated, it is but logical to infer that it never 
will, so long as the present conditions of climate and the 
present configuration of the continent endure. It is an 
interesting fact that whether on the Gulf of Mexico or in 
British America the eastern limit-line is api3roximately the 
same. 

" But why," it will again be asked, "will not the young 
from the eggs laid along the eastern limit you have indi- 
cated, hatch and spread further to the eastward ? " Here, 
again, historical record serves us, and there are, in addi- 
tion, certain physical facts, which help to answer the 
question. In Chapter V it is shown, that the young 
insects do not reach, on an average, ten miles east of any 
point where they hatch, and that upon acquiring wings 
they fly in the main northwestwardly. 

East of color-line indicated in Plate I, they did not reach 
in a general way, either in 18T4 or 1876, and beyond that 
line I do not believe they will ever do any damage. Not 



Home, and Range East of Mountains. 67 

that they may not to some extent spread beyond that line, 
in years to come, or that the young, hatching from invad- 
ing swarms may not exceptionally push beyond it ; for I 
have numerous records to show that the insects have 
occurred as far as the western point of Lake Superior, and 
that they have even reached the Mississippi in parts of 
Iowa : but in all such instances they appeared in scatter- 
ing numbers only, and did no material damage. They 
were the last remnants of the mighty armies from the 
mountains, moving and blowing about, diseased, parasit- 
ized, intestate and wasting away. 

It is an interesting fact, as shown by the distribution of 
timber in the United States, that this limit-line follows, in 
the main, the separation of the timber from the plains and 
prairie regions, or, more correctly speaking, the line which 
separates that vast region between the Mississippi and the 
mountains in which the timber averages not more than 
six or seven out of every one hundred acres, and that in 
which it averages twenty-five or thirty out of every one 
hundred. In this fact we also get another probable ex- 
planation of the eastern limit of injury by spretus. 

Well is it for the people of the Mississippi Valley that 
this insect can not go on multiplying indefinitely in their 
fertile fields ! Else, did it go on multiplying and thriving 
as the Colorado Potato-beetle has done, this whole valley 
would soon become a desert waste. 

It will be a source of satisfaction to the farmers east of 
the line indicated (however little it may be to those on 
the westward side,) to feel assured against any future inva- 
sion by, or any serious injury from, an army of insects so 
prodigiously numerous as actually to obscure the light of 
the sun, and so ruinously destructive as to devour almost 
every green thing that grows ! 



CHAPTER IV. 



NATURAL HISTORY AND TRANSFORMATIONS. 

HOW THE EGGS ARE LAID. 

The female, when about to lay her eggs, forces a hole 
in the ground by means of the two pairs of horny valves 
which open and shut at the tip of her abdomen, and 
which, from their peculiar structure, are admirably fitted 

for the pur- 
pose. (See 
Fig. 7, where 
5, c, show the 
structure of 
one of each 
of the upper 
and lower 
valves). With 
-^5^ the valves 
^f- closed she 
pushes the 

Kooky Mountain LocrsT:— o, a, a, female In different po- " 

sitions, ovipositing; 6. egg-pod extracted from ground, wlthtlie wpOUnd and 

end broken open ; c, a few eggs lying loose on tiie ground; d, e, ° ' 

sliow the earth partially removed, to Illustrate an egg-mass 'hy o serieS 

already in place, and one being placed; /, shows where such a ^ 

mass has been covered up. q£ muSCular 

efforts and the continued opening and shutting of the 
valves, she drills a hole until in a few minutes (the time 
varying with the nature of the soil) nearly the whole abdo- 
men is buried. The abdomen stretches to its utmost for this 

( 69 ) 




70 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 




Rocky Mountain 
LocTJST — An»l characters 
of female, showing horny 
valves. 



purpose, especially at the middle, and the hole is generally 
a little curved, and always more or less oblique (Fig. 6, d). 
Now with hind legs hoisted straight above the back, and 
the shanks hugging more or less closely the thighs, she 
commences ovipositing. If we could manage to watch a 
female during the arduous work of ovi- 
positing, we should find that, when the 
hole is once drilled, there commences 
to exude at the dorsal end of the abdo- 
men, from a pair of sponge-like exser- 
tile organs (Fig. 8, A) that are normally 
retracted and hidden beneath the super- 
anal plate (Fig. 8, t), near the cerci, a 
frothy, mucous matter, which fills up the bottom of the 
hole. Then with the two pairs of valves brought close to- 
gether, an egg would be seen to slide down the oviduct {j ) 
along the ventral end of the abdomen, 
and guided by a little finger-like style* 
{g) pass in between the horny valves 
(which are admirably constructed, not 
only for drilling, but for holding and con- 
ducting the egg to its appropriate place) 
and issue at their tips amid the mucous 
fluid already spoken of. Then follows a 
period of convulsions, during which more 
mucous material is elaborated, until the 
whole end of the body is bathed in it, 
when another egg passes down and is 
placed in position. These alternate processes continue 
until the full complement of eggs are in place, the number 
ranging from 20 to 35, but averaging about 28. The mu- 
cous matter binds all the eggs in a mass, and when the 




OviposiTion OF 
Rocky Mountain 
Locust 



"" This 18 a simple process or extension of the sternite, and may be known as 
the cgL'Suide. or gvbernaculum ovi. 



Natural History and Transformations. 11 



last is laid, the mother devotes some time to filling up the 
somewhat narrower neck of the burrow with a compact 
and cellulose mass of the same material, which, though 
light and easily penetrated, is more or less impervious to 
water, and forms a very excellent protection (Fig. 9, d). 

PHILOSOPHY OP THB EGG-MASS. 

To the casual observer, the eggs of our locust appear 
to be thrust indiscriminately into the hole made for their 
reception. A more careful study of the egg-mass or Qgg- 
jDod will show, however, that the female took great pains 
to arrange them, not only so as to economize as much space 
as possible consistent with the form of each Q^g, but so as 
to best facilitate the escape of the young locust ; for if, 
from whatever cause, the upper eggs should fail to hatch, 
or should hatch later than the lower ones, the former would 
offer an impediment to the exit of the young in their endeav- 
ors to escape from these last, were there no provision against 
[Fig. 9] such a possibil- 

ity. The eggs 
are,indeed,most 
carefully placed 
side by side in 
four rows, each 
row generally 
containing sev- 
en. They ob- 
lique a little 
larged. crosswisc of the 

cylinder (Fig. 9, a). The posterior or narrow end, which 
issues first from the oviduct, is thickened, and generally 
shows two pale rings around the darker tip (Fig. 10, a). 
This is pushed close against the bottom of the burrow, 
which, being cylindrical, does not permit the outer or two 




Egg JfAPs OF Rocky Motntain Locust:— a, from the 
Biilp. within hurrow ; 6, from beneath ; c. from above— eu- 



72 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

side rows to be pushed quite so far down as the two inner 
rows, and for the very same reason the upper or head ends of 
the outer rows are necessarily bent to the same extent over 
the inner rows, the eggs when laid being somewhat soft 
and plastic. There is, consequently, an irregular channel 
along the top of the mass (Fig. 9, c), which is filled only 
with the same frothy matter which surrounds each egg, 
which matter occupies all the other space in the burrow 
not occupied by the eggs. The whole plan is seen at once 
by a reference to the accompanying figure, which represents, 
enlarged, a side view of the mass within the burrow, (a), 
and a bottom {Ti) and top (c) view of the same, with the 
earth which adheres to it removed. 

DOES THE FEMALE FORM MORE THAN ONE EGG-MASS ? 

Whether the female of our Rocky Mountain Locust lays 
her full supply of eggs at once, and in one and the same 
hole, or whether she forms several pods at different 
periods, are questions often asked, but which have never 
been fully and definitely answered in entomological works. 
It is the rule with insects, particularly with the large 
number of injurious species, belonging to the Lepidoptera, 
that the eggs in the ovaries develop almost simultaneously, 
and that when oviposition once commences, it is continued 
uninterruptedly until the supply of eggs is exhausted. 
Yet there are many notable exceptions to the rule among 
injurious species, as in the cases of the common Plum 
Curculio and the Colorado Potato-beetle, which oviposit 
at stated or irregular iiitervals during several weeks, or 
even months. The Rocky Mountain Locust belongs to 
this last category, and the most casual examination of the 
ovaries in a female, taken in the act of ovipositing, will 
show that besides the batch of fully formed eggs then and 
there being laid, there are other sets, diminishing in size. 



Natural History and Transformations. 73 

which are to be laid at future periods. This, I repeat, can 
be determined by any one who will take the trouble to 
carefully examine a few females when laying. But just 
how often, or how many eggs each one lays, is more diffi- 
cult to determine. With spretus I have been able to 
make comparatively few experiments, but on three differ- 
ent occasions I obtained two pods from single females, 
laid at intervals of 18, 21 and 26 days respectively. I 
have, however, made extended experiments with its close 
congeners, femur -nihrum and Atlanis, and in two cases, 
with the former, have obtained four different pods from one 
female, the laying covering periods of 58 and 62 days, and 
the total number of eggs laid being 96 in the one case 
and 110 in the other. A number of both species laid 
three times, but most of them — owing, perhaps, to their 
being confined — laid but twice. They couple with the 
male in the intervals of oviposition, and I have no doubt 
but that, as in most other species of animals, there is great 
difference in the degree of individual prolificacy. We may, 
therefore, feel tolerably confident that the Rocky Mountain 
Locust will sometimes form as many as four egg-pods. 

The time required for drilling the hole and completing 
the pod will vary according to the season and the temper- 
ature. During the latter part of October, or early in No- 
vember last year, when there was frost at night and the 
insects did not rouse from their chilled inactivity until 9 
o'clock A. M., the females scarcely had time to complete the 
process during the four or five warmer hours of the day ; 
but with a higher temperature not more than from two 
to three hours would be required. 

HOW THK YOUNG LOCUST ESCAPES FROM THE EGG. 

Carefully examined, the egg-shell is found to consist of 
two layers. The outer layer which is thin, semi-opaque, 



74 



The Rocky Moicntain Locust. 



and gives the pale, cream-yellow color, is seen by aid of a- 
high magnifying power to be densely, minutely and shal- 

lowly pitted ; or, to 



[Fig. 10.] 




use still more exact 
language, the whole 
surface is netted with 
minute and more or 
less irregular, hexag- 
onal ridges (Fig 10, 
a, h). It is a mere 
covering of excreted 
i^isy#--.-_iili matter, similar in na- 
iM Ji^i' ;/ t^^6 to the 



ture to 
1/ matter, 
scribed, 
the 



mucous 

already de- 

which binds 

eggs together. 



Egg OF RocKT MoiJNTAra' Locrsx:— a, show- 



The inner layer (or 
chorion) is thicker, of 
a deeper yellow, and 
perfectly smooth. It, 
also, is translucent, so 

ing sculpture of outer shell; 6. the same, very fl-inf qq +Tio VidtnliirxT 
hishlv magnified , c. the inner shell, just before ^"•^^' ^^ ^^^ natCUmg 
hatching ; d. e, points where it ruptures period approaches, the 

form and members of the embryon may be distinctly dis- 
cerned through it. The outer covering is easily ruptured, 
and is rendered all the more fragile by freezing ; but the 
inner covering is so tough that a very strong pressure 
between one's thumb and finger is required to burst it. 
How, then, will the embryon, which fills it so comj^actly 
that there is scarcely room for motion, succeed in escaping 
from such a prison ? The rigid shell of the bird's e^^ is 
easily cracked by the beak of its tenant ; the hatching 
caterpillar, curled within its egg-shell, has room enough 
to move its jaws and eat its way out ; the egg-coverings 



Natural History and Transformations . 75 



of many insects are so delicate and frail that the mere 
swelling of the embryon affords means of escape ; those 
of others are so constructed that a door flies open, or a lid 
lifts by a spring, whenever pressure is brought to bear : 
in some, two halves open, as in the shell of a muscle ; 
whilst in a host of others the embryon is furnished with a 
special structure, called the egg-burster,* the office of 
which is to cut or rupture the shell, and thus afford means 
of escape. But our young locust is deprived of all such 
contrivances, and must have another mode of exit from 
its tough and sub-elastic prison. Nature accomplishes the 
same end in many different ways. She is rich in contriv- 
ances. The same warmth and moisture which promote 
the development of the living embryon, also weaken the 
inanimate shell, by a process analogous to decomposition, 
and by a general expansion consequent ujDon the swelling 
of the embryon within. Thus, the eggs when about to 
hatch are much more plump and somewhat larger and 
more transparent than they were when laid. At last, by 
the muscular efforts of the nascent locust, and the swell- 
ing of its several parts, especially about the head and 
mouth, the shell gives way, generally splitting along the 
anterior ventral part. The whole process may, in fact, be 
likened to the germination of a hard-covered seed, when 
planted in moist ground, and, precisely as in this latter 
case, there is, in some loose soils, a certain heaving of the 
ground, from the united swelling of the locust eggs. All 
the eggs in a given mass burst very nearly at one and the 
same time, and in that event the lowermost individuals 
await the escape of those in front of them, which first 
push their way out through the neck of the burrow (Fig. 
9, d,) provided by the parent. 

* I have elsewhere (Mo. Ent. Kep. 9, p 127.) called this the Ruptor ovl. 



76 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

They all escape, one after the other, through one small 
hole, which in the field is scarcely noticeable. Such is the 
usual mode of hatching ; but when the young from the 
lower eggs hatch first, or when the upper eggs perish and 
leave the lower ones sound — as is not unfrequently the 
case — the exit is nevertheless easily made along the chan- 
nel already described (Fig. 9, c). 

Where there is the heat requisite to insure development, 
but insufficient moisture to weaken the egg-shell, it is not 
improbable that another agency comes into play to aid the 
escape of the young. 

Every one who has been troubled by it must have 
noticed that the shanks (tibice) of our locust, as of all the 
members of its family, are armed with spines. On the four 
anterior legs, these spines are inside the shank ; on the 
long posterior legs, outside. The spines of the hind 
shanks are strongest, and the terminal ones on all legs 
stronger than the rest. There can be no doubt that these 
spines serve to give a firm hold to the insect in walking 
or jumping ; but they may have first served a more im- 
portant prenatal purpose by partially performing the office 
of egg-burster. 

When fully formed, the embryon is seen to lie within its 
shell, as at Fig. 10, c. The antennae curve over the face 
and between the jaws, which are early developed, and 
which, with their sharp, black teeth, reach down to the 
breast. The legs are folded up on the breast, the strong 
terminal hooks on the hind shanks reaching toward the 
mesosternum, or middle-breast. Ordinarily all these parts 
are sheathed in the delicate pellicle {amnion) presently to 
be described. But just in proportion as the hatching is 
retarded for want of moisture, after the embryon is once 
fully developed, in that proportion the jaws and spines 
harden ; and it would seem that by the muscular contrac- 



Natural History and Transformations. 11 

tions and expansions of hatching, which bring the ventral 
parts with great pressure against the shell, there might be 
slight friction of the horny points which would wear 
through the delicate amnion and facilitate the rujDture of 
the shell at the points marked d and e in Fig. 1 0. 

After this is ruptured, the nascent larva, by a series of 
undulating movements soon works itself entirely out of the 
egg-shell and makes its way to the light in the manner 
already described. Once fully escaped from the soil, it 
rests for a short time from its exertions. Its task is by no 
means complete : before it can feed or move with alacrity 
it must molt a pellicle* which completely encases every 
part of the body. This it does in the course of three or 
four minutes, or even less, by a continuance of the same 
contracting and expanding movements which freed it from 
the earth, and which now burst the skin on the back of 
the head. The body is then gradually worked from its 
delicate covering until the last of the hind legs is free and 
the exuvium remains, generally near the point where the 
animal issued from the ground, as a little, white, crumpled 
pellet. Pale and colorless at first, the full-born insect in 
the course of half an hour assumes its dark-gray coloring. 

From this account of the hatching process, we can read- 
ily understand why the female in ovipositing prefers com- 
pact or hard soil to that which is loose. The harder and 
less yielding the walls of the burrow, the easier will the 
young locust crowd its way out. 

Though the covering which envelops the little animal 
when fii'st it issues from the egg is quite delicate, it never- 
theless in the struggles of birth undoubtedly affords pro- 
tection from the burrow, and it is an interesting fact that 

* This pellicle (the amnion) is common to most insects. As a rule it is left 
with the chorion, but by most Orthoptera and Nearoptera it is shed after leaving 
the egg. 



78 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

while it is shed within a few minutes of the time when the 
animal reaches the free air, it is seldom shed if, from one 
cause or other, there is failure to escape from the soil, even 
though the young locust may be struggling for days to 
effect an escape. 

While yet enveloped in this pellicle, the animal possesses 
great forcing and pushing power, and if the soil be not too 
compact, will frequently force a direct passage through the 
same to the surface, as indicated at the dotted lines, Fig. 
9, e. But if the soil is at all compressed it can make little 
or no headway, except through the appropriate channel 
(c?). While crowding its way out, the antennae and four 
front legs are held in much the same position as within the 
egg, the hind legs being generally stretched. But the 
members bend in every conceivable way, and where sev- 
eral ai*e endeavoring to work through any particular 
passage, the amount of squeezmg and crowding they will 
endure is something remarkable. Yet if by chance the 
protecting pellicle is worked off before issuing from the 
ground, the animal loses all power of further forcing its 
way out. The instinctive tendency to push upwards is 
also remarkable. In glass tubes, in which I have had the 
eggs hatching in order to watch the young, these last 
would always turn their heads and push toward the bot- 
tom whenever the tubes were turned mouth downward ; 
while in tin boxes where the eggs were placed at different 
depths in the ground, the young never descended, even 
when they were unable to ascend on account of the com- 
pactness of the soil above. 

GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATIONS. 

The little locust when first hatched is quite pale, but 
soon becomes mottled with gray and brown. Except in 
having a shorter, narrower prothorax, sloping roof-fashion 



Natural History and Transformations. Y9 




to a meridian ridge, and in lacking wings, the young 
locust scarcely diifers in structure from its parent ; and 
the perfect, winged form is gradually assumed thi'ough a 
series of five molts, during the first four of which the 
wing-pads become larger, [Fig. ii.] 

and during the last, from 
the pupa (Fig. 11, c), to 
the perfect state, the tho. 
rax becomes flattened, the 
wings are acquired, and the 
insect ceases to grow and 
is ready to procreate. The 

. KocKY MorNTAiN Locust :-«, a, newly 

tim.e required from hatching hatched larv* ; 6, fuU-growa larva ; c, pupa. 

till the wings are obtained, differs very much according to 
latitude and season, but averages from six weeks to two 
months. 

In order to illustrate the interesting process of molting 
we will trace an individual through the last molt — from 
the pupa to the winged insect — as it is the most difficult, 
and, on account of the larger size of the animal, most 
easily watched. The other molts are very similar, except 
that the wing-pads increase but moderately in size with 
each. When about to acquire wings the pupa crawls up 
some post, weed, grass-stalk, or other object, and clutches 
such object securely with the hind feet, which are dra^vn 
up under the body. In doing so the favorite position is 
with the head downward, though this is by no means essen- 
tial. Remaining motionless in this position for several 
hours, with antennae drawn down over the face, and the 
whole aspect betokening helplessness, the thorax, especially 
between the wing-pads, is noticed to swell. Presently the 
skin along this swollen portion splits right along the mid- 
dle of the head and thorax, starting by a transverse-curved 
suture between the eyes, and ending at the base of the 



80 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



abdcmen. Let us now imagine that we are watching one 
from the moment of this splitting, and when it presents 
the appearance of Fig. 12, a. As soon as the skin is split, 
the soft and white fore-body and head swell and gradually 

L Fig. 12. ] 




Rocky Mountain Locust :— Process of acquiring wings • a, pupa with sljin just 
split on the back , 6^ the imago extruding ; c. the imago nearly out ; d, the imago with 
wings expanded. 

extrude more and more by a series of muscular contor- 
tions ; the new head slowly emerges from the old skin, 
which, with its empty eyes, is worked back beneath ; the 
new feelers and legs are being drawn from their casings, 
and the future wings from their sheaths. At the end of 
six or seven minutes our locust — no longer pupa and not 
yet imago — looks as in Fig. 12, J, the four front pupa-legs 
being generally detached and the insect hanging by the 
hooks of the hind feet, which were anchored while yet it 
had that command over them which it has now lost. The 
receding skin is transparent and loosened, especially from 
the extremities. In six or seven minutes more of arduous 
labor — of swelling and contracting — with an occasional 
brief respite, the antennae and the four front legs are freed, 
and the fulled and crimped wings extricated. The soft 
front legs rapidly stiffen, and, holding to its support as 



Natural History and Transformations . 81 

well as may be with these, the nascent locust employs 
whatever muscular force it possesses in drawing out the 
end of the abdomen, and its long hind legs (Fig. 12, c). 
This in a few more minutes is accomplished, and with gait 
as unsteady as that of a new-dropped colt, it turns round 
and clambers up the side of the shrunken, cast-oflf skin, 
and there rests while the wings expand and every part of 
the body hardens and gains strength — the crooked limbs 
straightening and the wings unfolding and expanding like 
the petals of some pale flower. The front wings are at 
first rolled longitudinally to a point, and as they expand 
and unroll, the hind wings, which are tucked and gathered 
along the veins, at first curl over them. In ten or fifteen 
minutes from the time of extrication these wings are fully 
expanded and hang down like dampened rags (Fig. 12, d). 
From this point on, the broad hind wings begin to fold up 
like fans beneath the narrower front ones, and 
in another ten minutes they have assumed the 
normal attitude of rest. Meanwhile the pale 
colors which always belong to the insect while 
molting have been gradually giving way to the 
natural tints, and at this stage our new-fledged 
locust presents an aspect fresh and bright (Fig. 
13). If now we examine the cast-off" skin we 
shall find every part entire, with the exception 
of the rupture which originally took place 
on the back ; and it would puzzle one who 
had not witnessed the operation to divine how 

. Rocky Motjn- 

the now stm hmd shanks of the mature insect tain locust: - 

The imago with 

had been extricated from the bent skeleton *'^ p**^"^ perfect, 
left behind. They are in fact drawn over the bent 
knee-joint, so that during the process they have been 
bent double throughout their length. They were as 
supple at the time as an oil-soaked string, and for some 
6 




82 TJie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

time after extrication they show the effects of this severe 
bending by their curved appearance. 

The molting, from the bursting of the pupa-skin to the 
full adjustment of the wings and straightening of the legs 
of the perfect insect, occupies less than three-quarters of 
an hour, and sometimes but half an hour. It takes place 
most frequently during the warmer hours of the morning, 
and within an hour after the wings are once in position 
the parts have become sufficiently dry and stiffened to en- 
able the insect to move about with ease, and in another 
hour, with appetite sharpened by long fast, it joins its 
voracious comrades and tries its new jaws. The molting 
period, especially the last, is a very critical one, and dur- 
ing the helplessness that belongs to it the unfortunate 
locust falls a j^rey to many enemies which otherwise would 
not molest it, and not infrequently to the voracity of the 
more active individuals of its own species. 

As already stated, there are five molts exclusive of that 
which takes place upon leaving the egg. In the first stage 
— that following the ^^^ — the wing-pads are not visible ; 
in the second stage they are likewise scarcely noticeable ; 
in thie third (after the second molt) they project but little 
beyond the meso- and meta-thorax, differ but little in size, 
and are directed downwards, lying separately close to the 
body ; in the fourth stage (after third molt) they are di- 
rected upward, the hind covering and hiding more or less 
the front pair, and the joints bearing them retreating more 
beneath the prothorax ; in the fifth stage (after fourth 
molt) they are enlarged as seen in the pupa, and with the 
fifth molt the sixth or perfect stage is attained. 

European authors differ as to whether there are three, 
four or five molts in the European migratory species ; * 

• See Kocppen, " Ueber die Heuschrecken In Suedrussland." 1805. p? '£l-Z. 



Natural History and Transformations. 83 

but I have watched spretus from the eg^ to the imago, 
and thousands of mounted and alcoholic specimens of all 
ages show the stages enumerated. The transition from 
the second to the third, however, is often imperceptible, 
and it is not at all improbable that, as is the case with 
many other insects, the number of molts will vary accord- 
ing to the amount of nutrition and rapidity of develop- 
ment. The joints of the antennoe increase with each molt, 
from 13 in the newly hatched to 24 or 25 in the full-fledged 
insect. 

FLIGHT AT NIGHT. 

It is the very general experience throughout the coun- 
try subject to invasion, that the winged insects rise, as 
soon as the sun begins to dissipate the dew, and that they 
come down again toward evening, as the sun's rays lose 
their power. It is a question, therefore, whether they ever 
continue flying during the night, and one which future 
investigation will doubtless settle. I am of the opinion 
that during the warmer mid-summer and early fall season, 
when the insects are departing from their northwest hatch- 
ing grounds, they must not infrequently continue flight 
from necessity ; for the descent of a swarm borne along 
in a strong current of air, at an altitude of over a mile 
above the earth, will depend more on some change in 
strength or direction of the current than on any other 
condition of the atmosphere. 



CHAPTER V. 



HABITS, AND POWER FOR INJURY. 

ITS FLIGHT AND RAVAGES. 

The voracity of these insects can hardly be imagined by 
those who have not witnessed them, in solid phalanx, 
falling upon a cornfield and converting, in a few hours, 
the green and promising acres into a desolate stretch of 
bare, spindling stalks and stubs. Covering each hill by 
hundreds ; scrambling from row to row like a lot of young 
famished pigs let out to their trough ; insignificant indi- 
vidually, but mighty collectively — they sweep clean a field 
quicker than would a whole herd of hungry steers. Im- 
agine hundreds of square miles covered with such a 
ravenous horde, and one can get some realization of the 
picture presented in many parts of the country west of 
the Mississippi during years of locust invasion. 

Their flight may be likened to an immense snow storm, 
extending from the ground to a height at which our visual 
organs perceive them only as minute, darting scintilla- 
tions — leaving the imagination to picture them mdefinite 
distances beyond. " When on the highest peaks of the 
snowy range, fourteen or fifteen thousand feet above the 
sea, I have seen them filling the air as much higher as 
they could be distinguished with a good field glass."* It 
is a vast cloud of animated specks, glittering against the 

* Wm. N. Byers, A7n. Entomology f , I, p. 94. 
(83) 



86 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

sun. On the horizon they often appear as a dust tornado, 
riding upon the wind like an ominous hail storm, eddying 
and whirling about like the wild dead leaves in an autumn 

[Fig. 14.] 



A SwABM OF Locusts falling upon and devouring a Wheat-field. 

Storm, and finally sweeping up to and past you, with a 
power that is irresistible. They move mainly with the 
wind, and when there is no wind they whirl about in the 
air like sAvarming bees. If a passing swarm suddenly 
meets with a change in the atmosphere, " such as the 
approach of a thunder-storm or gale of wind, they come 
down precipitately, seeming to fold their wings, and fall 



Habits, and Power for Injury. 87 

by the force of gravity, thousands being killed by the fall, 
if it is upon stone or other hard surface."* In alighting, 
they circle in myriads about you, beating against every- 
thing animate or inanimate ; driving into open doors and 
windows ; heaping about your feet and around your 
buildings ; their jaws constantly at work biting and test- 
ing all things in seeking what they can devour. In the 
midst of the incessant buzz and noise which such a flight 
produces ; in face of the unavoidable destruction every- 
where going on, one is bewildered and awed at the 
collective power of the ravaging host, which calls to mind 
so forcibly the plagues of Egypt. 

The noise their myriad jaws make when engaged in their 
work of destruction, can be realized by any one who has 
" fought " a prairie fire, or heard the flames passing along 
before a brisk wind : the low crackling and rasping — 
the general effect of the two sounds, is very much the 
same. Southey, in his Thalaba,f most graphically pictures 
this noise produced by the flight and approach of locusts : 

" Onward they come, a dark, continuous cloud 
Of congregated myriads numberless. 
The rushing of whose wings was as tlie eound 
Of abroad river, headlong in its course 
Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 
Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 
Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks! " 

Nothing, however, can surpass the prophet Joel's ac- 
count of the appearance and ravages of these insects. 
Omitting the figurative parts, it is accurate and graphic 
beyond measure : 

" A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds 
and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the 
mountains ; a great people and a strong ; there hath not 

* Wm. N. Byers, Hayden's Geol. Surv., 1870, p. 282. 
+ I., 169. 



88 Tlit BocTcy Mountaiit Locust, 



been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even 
to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth 
before them ; and behind them a flame burneth ; the 
land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind 
them a desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape 
them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of 
horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise 
of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like 
the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as 
a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the 
people shall be much pained ' all faces shall gather black- 
ness. They shall run like mighty men ; they shall climb 
the wall like men of war ; and they shall march every 
one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. 
* * * They shall run to and fro in the city ; they 
shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the 
houses ; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief." 
Those who suffered from and witnessed the vast army 
that cast a blight over so large a portion of our Western 
country in 1874 and 1876 ; or who passed by rail, during 
the better part of two days, through a perfect storm of 
these insects, which frequently impeded or stopj^ed the 
train by their crushed bodies reducing the traction — will 
concede that Joel's picture is not overdrawn, and that, 
though written over 2,500 years ago, it might have been 
inspired from many parts of North America in the years 
namedo 

THE MIGEATOKY INSTINCT AND GREAT DESTRUCTIVE POWER 
BELONG TO BUT ONE SPECIES W^EST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Being anxious to ascertain whether the injuries reported 
in the different parts of the country between the Missis- 
sippi and the Rocky Mountains were all caused by one 
species, or whether others joined their forces in devastat- 



Habits, and Power for Injury. 89 

ing the country, I have taken some pains to procure speci- 
mens from as many different localities as possible. After 
examining such from every State and Territory in the 
country mentioned, fi*om British America to the Gulf, it is 
obvious that in every instance it is the same species that 
proves such a scourge. As yet, we know nothing very defi- 
nite about the species that has in the past done so much 
damage in California and other parts of the country west 
of the mountain range. Some suppose it to be the (Edip- 
oda atrox, Scudder ; but as spretus has been taken in 
Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, this species, or a race 
of it, will doubtless be found to be the culprit. 

Only occasionally do specimens of some of the more 
common species accompany the migratory one. Thus the 
larger and common species, the Two-striped Locust {Cal 
optenus bivittatus. Say) and the Differential Locust (C. 
diJferentialiSf Walk.) which are incapable of migrating to 
any great distance, and which are common in the Missis- 
sippi Valley, have occasionally been caught with the spre- 
tus, and sent to me with it. Already existing in the 
country invaded by the Rocky Mountain species, they 
were simply gathered up with it. 

Yet, while no other species possesses such wonderful 
migratory habits, several become so enormously multiplied 
during certain years in their native homes as to commit 
very serious injury to vegetation. Some of them are also 
capable of extended flight. Of these, I shall speak more 
fully further on. 

POOD PLANTS. 

The Rocky Mountain Locust may be said to be almost 
omnivorous. Scarcely anything comes amiss to the raven- 
ous hosts when famished. They will feed upon the dry 
bark of trees or the dry lint of seasoned fence planks ; and 



90 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

upon dry leaves, paper, cotton and woolen fabrics. They 
have been seen literally covering the backs of sheep^ 
eating the wool ; and whenever one of their own kind is 
weak or disabled from whatsoever cause, they go for him 
or her with cannibalistic ferocity, and soon finish the 
struggling and kicking unfortunate. They do not refuse 
even dead animals, but have been seen feasting on dead 
bats and birds. Few things, therefore, come amiss to them 
Yet where food is abundant they are fastidious and much 
prefer acid, bitter or peppery food to that which is sweet. 
The following resume of my notes and observations may 
prove interesting ; Vegetables and cereals are their main 
stay. Turnips, rutabagas, carrots, cabbage, kohlrabi 
and radishes are all devoured with avidity ; beets and 
potatoes with less relish, though frequently nothing but 
a few stalk-stubs of the latter are left, and sometimes the 
tubers in the ground do not escape. Onions they are 
very partial to, seldom leaving anything but the outer 
rind. Of leguminous plants the pods are preferred to the 
leaves, which are often passed by. Cucurbitaceous plants 
also suifer most in the fruit. In the matter of tobacco 
their tastes are cultivated, and they seem to relish an old 
quid or an old cigar more than the green leaf. Tomatoes 
and sweet potatoes are not touched so long as other food 
is accessible. 

Of cereals, corn is their favorite ; if young and tender^ 
everything is devoured to the ground ; if older and drier, 
the stalks are mostly left ; the silk is, however, the first 
part to go. All other cereals are to their taste, except 
sorghum and broom corn, which are often left untouched. 
The bearded varieties of wheat have been less damaged 
in Minnesota, by the winged insects, than the smooth 
varieties. They are fond of buckwheat and flax, but 
seldom touch castor beans except to feed upon the flower. 



Habits, and Poioer for Injury. 91 

Next to vegetables and cereals, they relish the leaves of 
fruit trees; they strip apple and sweet cherry trees, leaving 
nothing but the fruit hanging on the bare twigs. The 
leaves of the peach are generally left untouched, but the 
flesh of the unripe fruit is eaten to the stone. Pear trees, 
as Prof. Gale informs me, suffered less than any other kind 
of orchard tree at the Experimental farm of the Agricul- 
tural College at Manhattan, Kansas. The tender bark of 
twig and branch and trunk of all these trees is gnawed 
and girdled, and these girdled trees present a sad picture 
as one passes through the ravaged country during the 
subsequent winter. Sour cherry, apricot and plum trees 
are less affected by them, while ripe fruit is seldom 
touched. 

Of berries, strawberries and blackberries are devoured 
where raspberries are frequently unmolested. Flowermg 
shrubs very generally suffer, and they are particularly fond 
of Rose and Lilac. Of herbaceous plants, Helianthus, 
Amarantus and Xanthium are eaten with especial avidity. 
Grape vines suffer more from the girdling of the fruit- 
stems than from defoliation. Forest and shade trees suffer 
in different degrees, and some, when young, are not infre- 
quently killed outright. 

In 1874, Honey Locust, Red Cedar, Box Elder, Osage 
Orange, Elm and Oak, were either untouched or but little 
injured, while the following trees were preferred in the 
order of their naming : Ash, Willow, Cottonwood, Balm 
of Gilead, Silver-leaved and Lombardy Poplars, Black 
Ash, Black Locust, Black Walnut, Hickory, Ailanthus, 
Maple, Sumach and Evergreens. In every case they show 
a marked preference for plants that are unhealthy or 
wilted. In 1876 they in some cases showed a partiality 
for some plants that were passed by on other occasions, 
and their tastes are quite eccentric. 



92 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

It is generally supi^osed that evergreens escape the 
ravages of the young insects, but whei*ever these are abun- 
dant, hemlock, arbor vitse, the diflferent pines, and espe- 
cially the Norway spruce, for which they show a predi- 
lection, are stripped. The red cedar more often escapes- 
Wild prairie grass, especially that which is low, is eaten 
down less closely than other grasses, and oats more often 
escape than other cereals. Blue grass is sometimes killed 
out, but more generally not, and young corn is eaten down 
so often and so deeply into the ground that it is frequently 
destroyed. Potatoes are not killed by being eaten down, 
and generally make a crop after the insects leave, without 
replanting. This is especially the case when they are plant- 
ed deep, and where the vines as they grow are at first kept 
covered with earth, which they can be with impunity. The 
blossoms and stems of peas are left after the leaves are 
stripped, and parsnips sometimes remain untouched. All 
other vegetables are swept off. Of wild plants. Milkweed, 
{Asclepias) and Dogbane {Aj^ocymim) are little to their 
taste, and are taken only when all else is destroyed ; an 
occasional Salvia trichostemmoides and Vernonia novce- 
boracensis will also be left in the general ruin ; but the 
plant of all others that enjoys immunity from the omniv- 
orous creatures is the Amarantus Blitum, a low, creeping, 
glossy-leaved herb, lately introduced into Missouri. I 
found this plant unmolested even where the insects were 
so hard pushed for food that they were feeding on each 
other and on dead leaves, the bark of trees, lint of fences, 
etc., and where they were so thick hiding amid its leaves 
that fifty to a hundred occurred to the square foot. The 
immunity of the plant is the more remarkable since the 
other species of the genus do not escape. 

The dislike of locusts for Leguminous plants is very 
general, and, as Mr. G. M. Dawson, of Montreal, Canada, 



Habits^ and Power for Injury. 93 

first suggested, there is probably a connection between 
this dislike and the large number of such plants found on 
the western plains. 

In 1874, in Missouri, plants belonging to the Nightshade 
family {Solanacem) generally escaped their ravages ; the 
tops of potatoes and tomatoes were not eaten. Sweet 
potatoes, parsnips, castor-beans, butter-beans, carrots, 
celery and the tops of beets were not molested. They did 
no damage to broom-corn or sorghum. Tobacco was in 
most cases not eaten, and if eaten, it is reported as killing 
the locusts. Prairie grass, wild weeds and the leaves of 
most forest trees were left uninjured. Plants growing in 
wet places, or in the shade of trees, hills, etc., mostly 
escaped injury. Finally, when pushed to extremities, 
there is only one plant — the little Amarantus above men- 
tioned — that I have found that they will not touch. 

INJURY TO FRUIT AND FRUIT TREES. 

It is doubtful if grain-growers and stock-raisers suffer as 
much in the end as fruit-growers, from locust injuries. 
The injury is at first less felt by these, but in many in- 
stances it is more lasting and serious. Most trees survive 
one or two defoliations, but in many cases no leaves are 
permitted to grow for weeks, just at the season when they 
are most needed. This was especially the case in 1875 
with low shrubs, such as gooseberries and currants, in 
which the insects were fond of roosting. Where not ex- 
cessively numerous, heart-cherries were preferred over 
others, and the insects would pass through a strawberry 
bed and only clean out the weeds. A great many trees 
were killed outright, and it was often found necessary to 
cut down the grape-vines. Trees not killed were often 
badly barked and lost many limbs, and except where pro- 
tected by ditches, no orchards yielded fruit. Many trees 



94 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

put forth a few secondary blossoms after the insects left, 
and a few small apples were noticed on such in autumn. 

TIME OF APPEARANCE OF INVADING SWARMS. 

In endeavoring to deduce general conclusions respect- 
ing the time of year that the 1874 swarms reached different 
parts of the country, great difficulty was experienced in 
sifting those accounts which referred to the progeny of 
the 1873 invasion, and those which hatched within the 
insect's native range, and came from the extreme North- 
west. The same was true of the fresh 1876 swarms, and 
those which hatched in Minnesota. Yet we shall find, as 
a rule, that the insects which hatch outside of what is 
designated further on as their native habitat — *. e., in 
Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and the larger part of Nebraska, 
Kansas and Texas — acquire wings and leave before the 
fresh swarms from the mountain region appear. In the 
more northerly of the States, as in Minnesota, the insects 
hatched on the ground in ordinary seasons acquire wings 
in June, and earlier in proportion as we go south, until 
in Texas they become fledged in April. The time of appear- 
ance of the new swarms is in inverse ratio : i. e., earlier 
in the more northern, later in the more southern States- 
Thus, while on the confines of the insect's native habitat, 
it is almost if not quite impossible to distinguish between 
the old and the " new comers, in respect to the time of 
their acquiring wings, the difference in this respect be- 
comes greater the farther south and east we go. In 1874, 
swarms appeared during June in Southern Dakota; during 
July in Colorado, Nebraska and Minnesota ; during the 
latter part of this month in Iowa and Western Kansas. 
During August they came into Southeast Kansas and Mis- 
souri ; and by the middle of October they reached Dallas, 
in Texas. In 1876 they came later. 



Habits, and Power for Injury. 95 

One noticeable feature of the invasions is the greater 
rapidity with which the insects spread in the earlier part 
of the season, while in fullest vigor, and the reduction in 
the average rate of progress the farther east and south 
they extend. The length of their stay depends much upon 
circumstances. Early in the summer, when they first 
begin to pour down on the more fertile country, they sel- 
dom remain more than two or three days ; whereas, later 
in the season, they stay much longer. In speaking of the 
advent and departure of these insects, I use relative lan- 
guage only. The first comers, when — after having devoured 
everything palatable — they take wing away, almost always 
leave a scattering rear-guard behind, and are generally fol- 
lowed by new swarms ; and a country once visited presents 
for weeks the spectacle of the insects gradually rising in 
the air between the hours of 9 or 10 a. m. and 3 p. m., and 
being carried away by the wind, while others are constantly 
dropping. 

RATE AT WHICH THE INVADING SWARMS SPREAD. 

This may be illustrated by the history of the 1876 in- 
vasion. Leaving Montana about the middle of July, the 
insects reached far into Texas by the end of September, 
thus extending about 1,500 miles in 75 days, or an average 
of about 20 miles per day. But over a large part of this 
territory, viz., portions of Wyoming, most of Dakota and 
Nebraska, Western Minnesota, Northwestern Iowa, North- 
western Kansas, and Northeastern Colorado — they appeared 
almost simultaneously, or during the last few days of July 
and the first few days of August; and this, I think, indicates 
that they were at that time swept down at a very much 
higher rate by the northwesterly winds from Montana and 
British America. After that time the extension south was 
tolerably rapid, but the extension east was more and more 



96 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

slow. They occupied nearly a month reaching from North- 
western Iowa to the southwestern limit in the same State, 
and their eastward progress on the confines of the limit- 
line already indicated was still more gradual as they went 
south. All of which indicates that they fly most power- 
fully when leaving the higher altitudes of the Northwest, 
and most persistently during the first week or so after be- 
coming fledged, while the females are not yet prompted to 
descend for oviposition. This is also the period when they 
are passing over the vast plains and the sparsely settled 
and uncultivated portion of the country, in which there is, 
perhaps, least inducement for the ravenous host to halt. 

As flight is not consecutive day after day, but often im- 
peded by bad weather, and as it is not continuously in one 
direction, the average rate is not more than twenty miles 
a day. It is also most variable, and at times reaches a 
maximum of between two hundred and three hundred 
miles daily. 

DIRECTION OP FLIGHT OF INVADING SWARMS. 

The wind is sometimes quite changeable during the 
period of invasion, and we find the insects, at one time or 
another, traveling in nearly all possible directions, except 
due west. Yet the direction of the invading hosts has 
been, and I believe always will be, conspicuously toward 
the south and southeast. The exceptions are only sufiicient 
to prove the rule. 

WHERH THE EGGS ARE LAID. 

The eggs may be laid in almost any kind of soil, but by 
preference they are laid in bare, sandy places, especially 
on high, dry ground, which is tolerably compact and not 
loose. It is generally stated that they are not laid in 
meadows and pastures, and that hard road-tracks are pr©^ 
ferred ; in truth, however, meadows and pastures, where 



Habits, and Poioer for Injury. 97 

the grass is closely grazed, are much used for ovii^ositing 
by the female, while on well-traveled roads she seldom 
gets time to fulfill the act without being disturbed. Thus 
a well-traveled road may present the appearance of being 
perfectly honey-combed with holes, when an examination 
will show that most of them are unfinished, and contain 
no eggs ; whereas a field covered with grass-stubble may 
show no signs of such holes and yet abound with eggs. 
Furthermore, the insects are more readily noticed at their 
work along roads and roadsides than in fields, a fact which 
has also had something to do in forming the popular im- 
pression. Newly plowed land is not liked ; it presents too 
loose a surface ; but newly broken sward is often filled with 
eggs. Moist or wet ground is generally avoided for the 
purpose under consideration. During the operation the 
female is very intent on her work, and may be gently ap- 
proached without becoming alarmed, though when sud- 
denly disturbed she makes great efibrts to get away, and 
extricates her abdomen in the course of a few seconds, the 
time depending on the depth reached. 

TIME OF HATCHING. 

The date at which the eggs hatch varies with the 
earliness or lateness of the spring, and is moreover quite 
irregular, some hatching in the same locality when the 
first-hatched locusts are getting wings. As a general rule, 
however, the bulk of the eggs hatch out in the different 
latitudes about as follows : 

In Texas, from the middle to the last of March. 

In the southern portions of Missouri and Kansas, about 
the second week in April. 

In the northern parts of Missouri and Kansas and the 
southern sections of Iowa and Nebraska, the latter part 
of April and first of May. 

In 3Iinnesota and Dakota, the usual time of hatching 



98 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

ranges from early in May in the southern portions to the 
third week in the northern extremity. 

In Montana and Manitoba, from the middle of May to 
the first of June. 

Id short, the bulk of the insects hatch, in ordinary 
seasons, about the middle of March in latitude 35'', and 
continue to hatch most numerously about four days later 
with each degree of latitude north, until along the forty- 
ninth parallel the same scenes are repeated that occurred 
in Southern Texas seven or eight weeks before. 

HABITS OF THE YOUNG OR UNFLEDGED LOCUSTS. 

The habits of the young insects as they occur in the 
country south of the forty-fourth parallel and east of the 
one hundredth meridian, are as follows : Although possessed 
of remarkably active powers from the moment they leave 
the egg, yet so long as provision suffices for them on their 
hatching-grounds the young remain almost stationary and 
create but little apprehension. As soon, however, as the 
supply of food in these situations is exhausted, they 
commence to migrate, frequently in a body a mile wide, 
devouring, as they advance, all the grass, grain and garden- 
truck in their path. The migrating propensity is not 
developed until after the first molt, and often not till after 
the second or third. Up to that time they are content to 
huddle in warm places, and live, for the most part, on 
weeds, and especially on the common Dog-fennel or May- 
weed {Maruta) where it is present. 

The young locusts display gregarious instincts from the 
start, and congregate in immense numbers in warm and 
sunny places. They thus often blacken the sides of houses 
or the sides of hills. They remain thus huddled together 
during cold, damp weather. When not traveling, and when 
food is abundant, or during bad, rainy weather, they are 



HaMis, and Power for Injury. 99 

fond of congregating on fences, buildings, trees, or anything 
removed from the moist ground. They also prefer to get 
into such positions to undergo their different molts. In 
fields they collect at night or during cold, damp weather, 
under any rubbish that may be at hand, and may be enticed 
under straw, hay, etc., scattered on the ground. Old prairie 
grass affords good shelter, and where a wheat-field is 
surrounded with unburnt prairie, they will gather for shelter 
along the borders of this last. 

Their power for injury increases with their growth. At 
first devouring the vegetation in particular fields and 
patches in the vicinity of their birth-places, they gradually 
widen the area of their devastation, until at last, if very 
numerous, they devour every green thing over extensive 
districts. Whenever they have thus devastated a country 
they are forced to feed upon one another, and perish in 
immense numbers from debility and starvation. Whenever 
timber is accessible they collect in it, and after cleaning out 
the underbrush, feed upon the dead leaves and bark. A 
few succeed in climbing up into the rougher-barked trees, 
where they feed upon the foliage, and it is amusing to see 
with what avidity the famished individuals below scramble 
for any fallen leaf that the more fortunate mounted ones 
may chance to sever. This increase in destructiveness 
continues until the bulk of the locusts have undergone 
their larval molts and attained the pupa state. The pupa, 
being brighter colored, with more orange than the larva, 
the insects now look, as they congregate, like swarms of 
bees. From this time on they begin to decrease in numbers, 
though retaining their ravenous propensities. They die 
rapidly from disease and from the attacks of natural enemies, 
while a large number fall a prey, while in the helpless condi- 
tion of molting, to the cannibalistic proclivities of their own 
kind. Those that acquire wings rise in the air during 



100 Tlie Rocky 3Iountain Locust. 

the warmer parts of the day, and wend their way as far 
as the wind will permit toward their native home in the 
Northwest. They mostly carry with them the germs of 
disease or are parasitized, and wherever they settle do 
comparatively little damage. 

DIRECTIONS IN WHICH THE YOUNG LOCUSTS TRAVEL. 

The young insects move, as a rule, during the warmer 
hours of the day only, feeding, if hungry, by the way, but 
generally marching in a given direction until toward 
evening. They travel in schools or armies, in no particular 
direction, but purely in search of food — the same school 
one day often pursuing a different course from that 
pursued the day previous. On this point the experience 
of 1875 is conclusive, though the bulk of the testimony as 
to their actions, when hatching out in the States to the 
north and west, is to the effect that the prevailing direction 
taken is south or southeast, while in Southern Texas it is 
just opposite, or north. A person traveling along a road 
may often see one army marching in one direction to the 
left and another in the opposite direction to the right. 

RATE AT WHICH THE YOUNG TRAVEL. 

When about half grown they seldom move at a greater 
rate than three yards a minute, even when at their greatest 
speed over a tolerably smooth and level road, and not 
halting to feed. They walk three-fourths this distance and 
hop the rest. Two consecutive hops are seldom taken, and 
any individual one may be run down and fatigued by 
obliging it to hoj) ten or twelve times without a rest. 

THEY REACH BUT A FEW MILES EAST OF WHERE THEY 

HATCH. 

At the rate at which they travel, as just described, they 
could not extend many miles, even if they continued to 



Habits, and Poicer for Injury. 101 

travel in one direction from the time of hatching until 
maturity. They travel, on an average, not more than six 
hours per day ; and their unfledged existence terminates 
in from six to eight, say seven, weeks. It is very easy to 
calculate from these facts that if they continued in one 
direction from the time they hatch until they acquire 
wings, they could not extend thirty miles. In reality 
however, they do not travel every day, and where food 
is abundant they scarcely travel at all. Moreover, as just 
shown, they do not commence traveling till after the fii'st 

[Fig. 15.1 




AMSr.ICAN ACKIDIUM. 

molt, and they do not go continually in a particularly 
eastern direction, but in all directions. 

We have already seen that the winged insects take a north- 
west direction, and do not fly to the east. Yet in 1875 a few 
stragglers were carried as far as the centre of Missouri by 
being swept into the Missouri river and drifted on logs and 
chips during the annual rise of that river in July. These 
soon become lost to view; for most of them are intestate 
or diseased, and if they should lay eggs the young hatch 
early in the fall and perish at the approach of winter. 

NOT LED BY '* KINGS " OR " QUEENS." 

The idea that the young hoppers were led in their 
marches by so-called " kings " or " queens " has been, 



102 



Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 



at different times, very prevalent. It is, however, quite 
unfounded. Certain large locusts belonging to the genera 
Acridmm and (Edipoda^ hibernate in the full grown, 
winged state, and not in the o^^^ state, like the Rocky Moun- 
tain species. Always with us, their presence is simply 
more manifest in the spring, when the face of the earth is 
bare. Hopping with the others or falling into ditches 
with them, they give rise to this false notion, and it is an 
interesting fact, as showing how the same 'circumstances at 
times give rise to similar erroneous ideas in widely separate 
parts of the world, that the same idea prevails in parts 
of Europe and Asia. ' 

The two species which are most often thus found with 
the young locusts and supposed from their size and con- 
spicuousness to be guides, are the American Acridium 
{^Acridium Americanum, Drury, Fig. 15), and the Coral- 
winged Lo- 
cust ( CEdipo- 
da phcenicop>- 
tera, Germ., 
Fig. 16). The 
former is our 
largest and 
most elegant 
locust, the 

prevailing color being dark brown, with a broad, pale 
yellowish line along the middle of the back when the 
wings are closed. The rest of the body is marked with 
deep brown, verging to black, with pale reddish-brown, 
and with whitish- or greenish-yellow ; the front wings 
being prettily mottled, the hind wings very faintly green- 
ish with brown veins, and the hind shanks generally coral- 
red with black-tipped, white spines. The species is quite 
variable in color, size and marks, and several of the varie- 




COBAL- WINGED LOCTJST. 



Habits, and Power for Injury. 103 

ties have been described as distinct species. The Coral- 
winged Locust is also an elegant species, the colors being 
brown-black, brick-yellow inclining to brown, and a still 
paler, whitish-gray ; the hind wings varying from vermil- 
lion-red to pink, with more or less yellowish -green, and 
with a broad external dusky border, broadest and palest 
at tip. The hin4 shanks are yellow with black-tipped 
spines. This species is also quite variable, and at least half 
a dozen of its slight variations have been seized upon 
from which to fabricate new species. 

DIRECTION^ TAKEX BY THE DEPARTING SWARMS. 

"While, as we have just seen, the principal direction of 
the invading swarms is south and southeast, the principal 
direction of the departing swarms is north and northwest. 
This is emphatically the case with those that rise from the 
lower Missouri Valley country. In other words, there is 
a return migration toward the home of the immediate 
parents. That the insects instinctively seek this direction 
there can, I think, be no doubt ; for while they depend in 
great part on the wind for propulsion, and without its aid 
would be unable to migrate to very great distances, I have 
a large number of reports to show that whenever the wind 
blew from the north or northwest, the locusts came down 
and awaited a change to a more favorable direction. They 
begin to rise when the dew has evaporated, and descend 
again toward evening. A swarm passing over a country yet 
infested with the mature insects, constantly receives accre- 
tions from these, and is, consequently, always more dense 
in the afternoon than in the forenoon. In rising, the in- 
sects generally face the wind, and it is doubtful if they 
could ascend to any great height without doing so. They 
are, I believe, good navigators, and know how to take 
advantage of the different air currents. The rate at wliich 



104 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

they travel will depend on the force of the wind ; but it 
is evident from the observations made in Dakota, where 
their advance in 1875 was reported by telegraph, that they 
often travel a hundred miles a day. Their minimum speed, 
in tolerably calm weather, when the wind is scarcely felt 
at the surface of the ground, can not be much less than 
from eight to ten miles an hour. 

In the more western and northern parts of the locust 
region, as in Minnesota, Dakota and Colorado, the direc- 
tion of the departing swarms will be less constant, and 
according as they develop late, or are the progeny of 
swarms that came from other directions than the north- 
west, they will either be carried by the wind or will 
instinctively leave, in other directions. 

DESTINATION OF THE DEPARTING SWARMS. 

That the swarms which leave the fertile country in 
which they hatch and are not indigenous, pass by degrees 
to the northwest, and reach into Northwestern Dakota, 
Wyoming and Montana, the records clearly prove. That 
they also reach far up into the northwest regions of 
British America, the record of the flights of 1875 in 
Chapter II (p. 42) also abundantly attests. It is also just 
as certain that a large proportion of those which take wing 
perish on the way from debility, the eflects of storms, 
and more particularly from the attacks of parasites ; be- 
cause I proved by careful dissection in 1875 that a large 
proportion of those which came to maturity and left the 
western counties of Missouri, carried with them the germs 
of destruction in the shape of Tachina eggs or the larvae 
already hatched and of various sizes. Others again were 
infested with the scarlet mites. We may very justly con- 
clude, therefore, that a large proportion of the insects 
which depart from the country invaded, perish on their way 



Habits, and Power for Injury. 105 

toward the native breeding grounds of the species, and 
that those which do not so perish reach the Rocky Moun- 
tain region of the Northwest, whence their parents had 
come the previous year. They are carried back with favor- 
ing winds, in thinned and weakened ranks, and those that 
did not start with the germs of disease, and which escape 
froxn other vicissitudes, doubtless succeed in reaching those 
conditions which favor the continued perpetuation of the 
species. They do comparatively little harm on the way, 
and are not, by any manner of means, to be likened to the 
more disastrous swarms from the opposite direction in the 
fall. 



CHAPTER yi. 



EFFECTS OF THE YOUNG INSECTS IN THE 

COUNTRY IN WHICH THEY HATCH, 

BUT ARE NOT INDIGENOUS. 

EXPERIENCE WITH THE YOUNG LOCUSTS IN THE SPRING. 

Hating already spoken, in Chapter II, of the desolate 
aspect which the ravaged country sometimes wears toward 
the end of June, it will suffice in this connection to give a 
few of the more interesting experiences. It is recorded in 
Europe that few things, not even water, stop the armies of 
the young locusts when on the march, and Dongingk 
relates having seen them swim over the Dnjestr for a 
stretch of one and a quarter German miles, and in layers 
seven or eight inches thick.* We have had similar expe- 
rience with our own species. Mr. James Hanway, of Lane, 
Kansas, informs me that the young in 1875 crossed the 
Pottawatomie Creek, which is about four rods wide, by 
millions. The Big and Little Blues, tributaries of the 
Missouri — the one about one hundred feet wide at its 
mouth, and the other not so wide — were crossed at numer- 
ous places by the moving armies, which would march 
down to the water's edge, and commence jumping in, one 
upon another, till they would pontoon the stream, so as to 
effect a crossing. Two of these mighty armies met — one 
moving east and the other west — opposite a farm adjoin- 

* Koeppen, loc. cit . p 82 

(107) 



loS The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

ing Mr. Z. S. Ragan, of Independence, Mo., on the river 
bluff. Each turned its course north, and down the bluff, 
and, coming to a perpendicular ledge of rock twenty-five 
or thirty feet high, passed over in a sheet, apparently six 
or seven inches thick, at the same time causing a roaring 
noise similar to that of a cataract of water. 

CONTRAST IN SUMMER AND FALL. 

After the insects have left, or by the end of July in the 
latitude of St. Louis — earlier or later as we go south or 
north — the ravaged country begins to wear a bright and 
promising aspect, in strong contrast with the desolation 
of a month before. In August, the contrast becomes still 
more gratifying, and frequently there are grown the finest 
crops of corn, Hungarian grass, prairie meadow, buckwheat 
and vegetables of all kinds. In September, the change 
which three months have wrought needs to be seen to be 
appreciated. Root crops do well, and vegetables of all 
kinds attain immense proportions, owing to the freedom 
from weeds, and fertility resulting from the dung and 
bodies of the dead locusts. 

NO EVIL WITHOUT SOME COMPENSATING GOOD. 

Not to mention the valuable experience and the quick- 
ening influence that are generally gained in temporary 
adversity, there are other ways in which good may grow 
out of the locust troubles when they are severe. The 
chinch bugs filled the air in the spring of 1875, throughout 
the stricken district, and many persons feared that they 
would destroy the corn crop even if the locusts left. I 
then argued that there was no danger of such a result, 
and that there was every reason to expect less injury from 
this cause than usual, and with a wet summer, which might 
be expected, an almost total annihilation of the pest. With 



Injury from the Young. 109 

everything eaten by the locusts, the female chinches, 
instead of being quietly engaged, unseen, in laying eggs, 
as they usually are in May, were flying about, seeking 
plants on the roots of which to deposit their eggs. For 
this reason, they were more noticeable. Once fully devel- 
oped in the ovaries, the eggs must be laid, and the great 
"bulk of them were necessarily laid where the young hatch- 
ing from them were destined to perish, as the result proved; 
for, injurious as the species had been for the two or three 
previous years, scarcely a specimen was to be found in the 
fall. The same will hold true of many other insect pests, 
which are starved out in the spring by utter devastation 
of their food-plants; and such a devastated country is 
apt to be free from most noxious insects during the subse- 
quent two or three years. 

The unusual productiveness of the soil in the stricken 
country was on all hands noted during the year 1875, and 
was owing, in no small degree, to the rich coating of ma- 
nure which the locusts left. In the form of excrement and 
dead locusts, the bulk of that which was lost in spring was 
left in the best condition to be carried into the soil and 
utilized. The introduction of new seed from other States 
was also beneficial. 

Nature generally maintains her averages, and whenever 
diminished southern winds, drouth and locusts have pre- 
vailed, the opposite conditions are very apt to follow, and 
give us plenteous harvests in the place of short crops. 

CHANGES THAT FOLLOW THE LOCUSTS. 

The invasions into a country of large numbers of animals, 
whether men or insects, are often followed by changes in 
the vegetation of that country. Certain strange plants 
are said to yet mark the path through the Southern States 
which Sherman's soldiers took in their march to the sea, 



110 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



and a number of plants new to the country are known to 
have been introduced into France by the Germans during 
the late Franco-Prussian war. So the locust incursions and 
devastations in Kansas and Missouri were followed by 
some curious changes. These changes consisted mostly in 
the great prevalence of plants that in ordinary seasons are 
scarcely noticed. The Amarantus Blitum, already spoken 
of, spread at an unprecedented rate, and grew in great 
luxuriance. Immediately after the locusts left, the common 

[Fig 17.] 




Gkben Larva of Whith-hnkd Morning Sphinx. 

purslane started everywhere and usurped the place of 
many other species. The common Nettle {Solanxmi Caro- 
linense), and the Sand burr {S. rostratum), spread in 1875 
to an alarming degree, and the Poke weed {Phytolacca 
decandra), was very abundant. All kinds of grasses o-rew 
very luxuriantly during the summer, a fact due to the wet 
and favorable weather ; but some kinds* that are rare in 
ordinary seasons, got the start and grew in great strength 
and abundance. Among these none are more notable than 
the sudden appearance very generally over the locust- 
devastated region, of what is usually called a new grass. 

* Prof. G. C. Brodhead (Trans. St. Louis Ac. Sc. Ill, p. 348,) mentions more 
particularly, Aristida ohgostachya, in ordinal y seasons of rare occurrence around 
Pleasant Hill, as reaching the unusual height of two feet, and being very abundant. 
Eragrostis po(eoldes, ordlnarOy recumbent and scarcely noticed in yards and along 
roadsides, grew in profusion and three and a half feet high, " looking like mead- 
ows ready to be mowed." Panicum sanguinale was luxuriant enough to be cut 
for hay. 



Injury from the Young. Ill 

Springing up wherever the blue grass gets killed out, it 
proves a godsend to the people, for while it is young and 
tender, cattle like it and fatten upon it. This grass is the 
Yilfa vagincejlora^ an annual which is common from the At- 
lantic to the Rocky Mountains. Unnoticed during ordinary 
seasons, the destruction of the blue grass and other plants 
by the too close gnawing of the locusts, gives it the advan- 
tage in the struggle for existence — an advantage which is 
soon lost, however, as the normal relations between species 

[Fig. 18.] 




Black Larva of Whitk-linkd Morning Sphinx 

are assumed again in a few years after the disturbing 
influence has ceased to be operative. Indeed, since the 
Vilfa ripens and dies early in the fall, the blue grass gains 
ground the very first year, and afterward easily retains 
supremacy. The wide-spread appearance of the Vilfa, 
following the locusts, has been explained on the hypothesis 
that the latter brought the seed from the West and passed 
it undigested with their droppings. The fact that the seed 
is a line long, and not particularly hard, aside from the 
other facts in the case, renders such a hypothesis unreason- 
able. Being an annual, the seed was scattered the previous 
fall, and naturally starting, we may presume, about the time 
the insects left, the species got the ascendency. 

Some persons were quite alarmed at the prevalence of 
large green and black worms, soon after the locusts left. 
Feeding upon purslane and prevailing to an unusual 
degree, because of the unusual prevalance of this plant, 



112 



The RocJcy Mountain Locust. 



they generally did good by keeping this weed down and 
converting it into manure. In some few instances, how- 
ever, they swarmed to such au extent as to devour all the 
purslane, when they attacked grape-vines, and as Mr. Thos. 
Wells, of Manhattan, Kansas, informs me, even cut off 
corn when it was about a foot high. These worms were 
the variable larvoe of the White-lined Morning Sphinx, a 
pretty moth often seen hovering over flowers at evening. 
Most insects that naturally feed in spring above ground on 

[Fig. 19.] 




White-linbd Morning Sphinx 



low vegetation were killed out, and the only species 
unaffected by the visitation were those feeding on forest 
trees, or living in the ground or in the trunks of trees. 
The White-lined Morning Sphinx, was just issuing from 
the pupa, which had remained undisturbed below ground, 
when the locusts were leaving. It found the Purslane — its 
favorite food-plant — everywhere springing up and abun- 
dant, and its eggs were laid without difficulty, and the 
young larvjB did not, in any case, lack for food. As a 
consequence they prevailed to a remarkable degree. 



CHAPTER VII. 



NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN 
LOCUST. 

BIRDS AND OTHER VERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 

It is fortunate for man that, as in the case of most nox- 
ious insects, this locust is not without its numerous enemies. 
Chickens, turkeys and hogs devour immense quantities, 
and are happy during years of locust invasion, or whenever 
these insects abound. Praine chickens and quails devour 
them with avidity, and even hunt for their eggs; swallows 
and blackbirds pursue them unrelentingly ; the little snow 
birds devour great quantities of eggs when these are 
brought to the surface by the freezing and thawing of the 
ground ; and the same may be said of almost all birds in- 
habiting the Western country in winter ; for in the crops 
of warblers, plovers, snipe and other birds killed by the 
telegraph wires in the vicinity of Lawrence, Kansas, my 
friend, G. F. Gaumer, found these eggs last winter. 

The good offices of birds are especially noticeable in 
spring, when the young locusts are hatching in the lower 
Mississippi Valley. Immense flocks of the different species 
of blackbirds, of the Lapland Longspur {^Plectrophanes 
lapponicxis) and of plover attend the hatching grounds, 
and clear entire fields. In 1875, Prof. F. H. Snow, of 
Lawrence, Kansas, found the young locusts in the gizzards 
of the Red-headed Woodpecker {Melanerpes erythro- 

8 ( 113 ) 



114 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

cephalus). Yellow-billed Cuckoo {Coccygus Aniei'ica?ius), 
Cat-bird {Mimus Carolmensis), Red-eyed Vireo ( Vlreo 
olivaceus), Great-crested Flycatcher {Myiarchxis crinitus)., 
and Crow Blackbird ( Qniscalus yemco^O'?*), species that had 
not been noticed to feed on them before. The Shrike, or 
Butcher-bird, impales them upon thorns and other pointed 
substances ; and a number of other birds, as well as rep- 
tiles — e. g., toads, frogs and snakes, and the Box-turtle — 
feed upon them ; while the Skunk, Striped Squirrel, and 
the Field Mouse do good work in devouring the eggs. 

INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 

The full-grown insects are not infrequently infested with 
a long, thread-like worm, well known by the popular name 
of " hair-worm," and erroneously supposed by many good 
people to be animated horse hairs. Specimens are often 
taken which are thrice as long as the locust from which 
they come. These belong genencally to either Gordiiis or 
Mermis. Mr. G. F. Gaumer has examined several speci- 
mens infested with hair-worms, one of which was eighteen 
and a half inches long. I myself have taken a specimen 
six and a half inches long, which proves, upon comparison 
to be our commonest species, Gordius aquaticics. But by 
far the most effective helps in weakening the vast armies 
of locusts are the parasitic and predaceous insects, albeit 
their work is perhaps less noticeable and less appreciated. 
Passing over the few — like certain species of Digger 
Wasps, belonging to the genus Scolia^ which occasionally 
bury a few specimens as provision for their young ; vari- 
ous spiders ; the ferocious Asilus flies, which occasionally 
pounce upon a specimen, and suck out its juices, and the 
omnivorous ant, which sometimes feeds on the eggs, and 
on the weak, sickly and disabled hoppers — I will treat more 
particularly of those parasitic and predaceous species which 




Natural Enemies. 115 

render effective service to man in destroying the locust. For 
practical purposes, these may be divided into those which 
attack the eggs and those which attack the active locust. 

ANIMALS THAT ATTACK THE EGGS. 

The Silky Mite {Trombidncm sericeum, Say, Fig. 20.) — 
This is a small scarlet animal about two lines long, which 
has for some time been known to attack 
the eggs, and has particularly done good 
service in the more Northern States. In 
parts of Minnesota it has in many places 
reduced the eggs to a powder, and the 
ground has been alive with the little red, 
active bodies. 

The accompanying figure represents 
one about half grown. 

m, • • , ^ 1 m SILKY JUTE :— Natural 

ihis mite belongs to the genus Irom- size at side. 
biclium, only two N. A. species of which have been described 
viz., the scabrum, Say, and the sericeum, Say. The descrip- 
tions in both instances are very brief, and it is difficult to 
say whether the species in question belongs to either, as 
it varies considerably with age. It answers to sericeum, 
however, so far as the description goes, and I prefer to 
so refer it rather than describe it as new. The specimens 
which I have examined have not been full grown, and the 
pale red color which they possessed would doubtless have 
intensified with age. Every European is familiar with the 
Scarlet Mite {T. holoserieeum, L), which is common in the 
soil of gardens in spring, and preys upon young larvae of 
various descriptions. In color, silkiness and habit it greatly 
resembles our species, and may indeed be identical. All the 
species of this genus are highly colored, and the Trom- 
bidium tinctorium found in Guinea and Surinam is em- 
ployed as a dye. 



116 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

The eggs of the Silky Mite, which are small, spherical 
and i^ale red, are laid in the ground in a loose mass of 
nearly 200. They become pear-shaped before hatching, 
and the young mites are paler than the full grown individ- 
uals and have but six legs, the hind pair being atrophied. 
The following accounts of its work are worthy of jjlace : 

A discovery has been made of great interest. A small red bug 
or spider, about the size of a small kernel of wheat, is fouud iu 
great numbers, creeping into the holes to the grasshopper eggs and 
eating the contents of the eggs voraciously. Great numbers were 
found in the act of eating the eggs, with empty egg-shells in the 
same nest. The extent of the little friends is not limited, but they 
have been seen in many localities in different directions in this 
place. Mr. J. D. Johnston, Antrim, proved conclusively that these 
red bugs are making sure work among the eggs — S^Madelia (Minn.) 
Times, 1874. 

Last evening, when we reached "Worthington from Lake Shetek, 
there was quite an excitement in Worthingttm, owing to the fact 
that the citizens were generally convinced that a red parasite was 
destroying the grasshopper eggs. I examined the matter carefully 
myself, and became convinced that the destructi'in of the eggs iu 
that immediate vicinity was well assured; but I determined not to 
write you and excite any hope until a further and more complete 
examination could be had. We therefore furnished our Bohemian 
friends with a bottle of the eggs and their pests, and the commis- 
sion left in high spirits. We postponed further investigation until 
this morning, when I left and prosecuted the examination with 
vigor. The farmers in the vicinity knew nothing of these signs of 
deliverance until the visitors from Worthington reached them, and 
I feel safe in saying to you that in a circle of ten miles from 
Worthington there will scarcely be an egg left by to-morrow night. 
I send you a bottle herewith containing the cones and the parasites. 
We could scarcely find a cone or sack, except as they were indi- 
cated by the parasite on the surface; and each cone, which was not 
entirely destroyed, had from five to fifty of the red laborers at work 
upon the eggs. We found scores of cells with no eggs left, except 
the shells. 

************ 

I stopped for fifteen minutes one and a half miles west of Wilder, 
where Section Foreman Smith took me to that portion of his farm 
where eggs were deposited. We could find none by general dig- 
ging, but wherever we found, as we frequently did, the red parasite 
on the surface, we found the cone beneath, with the parasite at 
work consuming the eggs. * * * I am aware that two years 
ago this parasite was found working upon the eggs at Madelia and 
other places, but here we have the remedy almost as soon as the 



Natural Enemies. 117 



eggs are laid, while in the former instances the pai'asite was only 
discovered in the spring. — [Letter from Ex-Gov. Stephen Miller, 
written from Windom, Minn., Aug. 15, 1876. 

We send herewith a box of grasshopper eggs, together with the 
'■ Silky Mite," of which so mm^h has been said. You can see a sam- 
ple of the work they are doing. They are over the ground and in 
it wherever eggs have been laid. They suck the eggs, leaving the 
bare shell. We have talked with farmers from all parts of the 
county, and they all tell the same story — not a cell to be found that 
is net partially or wholly destroyed. 

We have per?onally inspected them in more than twenty diflfer- 
ent places, and i.je satisfied that in this county the eggs of the 
festive G. H. are a "total wreck." Allow us to suggest that you 
call for a report from every county in the State that has been 
infested by them. — [Letter to Pioneer Prexs and Trihiuie, from 
Bell & Grilelle, Worthington, Nobles Co., Minn., Aug. 16, 1876. . 

I send, enclosed in a circular tin box, mailed with this, some 
dirt containing grasshopper's eggs, and also the red mite or spider 
that sucks them, as you will perceive on examination. I trust they 
will be received in good order. I send them at the request of A. 
Whitman, of St. Paul, of this State, with whom 1 am correspond- 
ing sometimes on this grasshopper matter. — [Letter from R. B. 
Potts, U. S. N., Worthington, Minn., Aug. 18, 1876. 

Up to the autumn of 1876 the Silky Mite was the only 
parasite that was known to attack the eggs of our locust, 
though a small Chalcid-fly* had been bred by Mr. S. H. 
Scudder, from those of the Carolina Locust, a large species 
with blue and black hind wings ; and two Ichneumon-flies 
were known to attack locust eggs in Europe. In 1876 I 
found five new insect enemies attacking these eggs almost 
everywhere throughout the infested country, and these I 
will proceed to describe. 



* Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hiet., XII, p. 99. Mr. Scudder has kindly furnished 
me with female specimens. They are about 0.20 inch long, pitchy black, the head 
and thorax very deeply pitted and roughened, and the abdomen, which is flattened 
and quite tapering, also deeply marked with irregular, longitudinal depressions. 
The antennae have the scape as long as the flagellum, which is curved and enlarges 
to tip, which is suddenly docked. The scape, basal joint of flagellum and legs are 
honey-yellow ; the wings hyaline. 

A similar, if not the same Chalcid, infests the eggs of sprelus, for Mr. Potts 
has sent me egg-masses in which every egg had a Clialcid pupa. Unfortunately, 
they were too dry when received to permit of rearing the imago. 



118 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



The Anthomyia Egg-Parasitk, {Anthomyia radicnni, 
var. calopteni.) — This is by far the most wide-spread and 
generally useful of the different egg enemies. It has 
occurred in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska., Kansas, Missouri 
and Texas, and wherever I have examined the locust eggs, 

[ n^'. 21.] 




Anthomyia EggPauasite;— a. fly, 6. pupa c, larva from side, d. iiL-ail of same 
from above— enlarged 

whether in Missouri, Kansas or Nebraska, I have found it 

destroying on an average about ten per cent, of them. 

The following items will serve as samples of many others 

that might be given, referring to the work of this same 

parasite : 

Recently a white worm or maggot has been discovered in the 
locust eggs laid in this vicinity, and so general are the grubs that 
we really look for a great diminution in next year's locust crop. 
About the time the hoppers began laying eggs we had a hard, soak- 
ing rain, and since then we have had several more — the last this 
morning. By this time the ground is well soaked with wa'er and 
the eggs were and are laid in eai th that is quite moist. It is about 
two weeks since the hoppers first reached Mankato, they have laid 
many eggs, and already this worm or maggot has developed and 
seems to be on the increase, being found in the egg cells, where it 
sucks or destroys the egg. Some cells that I have opened have 
had two and three worms in them. — [From a letter from J. C.Wise, 
Mankato, Minn., August 20, 1876. 

On the ninth I sent you a b'^x of locust egg parasites, and to-day 
I will send you some more of different sorts or different stages of de- 



Natural Enemies. 119 



velopment or both, I find them more plentiful to-day than before. 
The grcmnd seems to be full of them, from five to twenty of the 
small white worms in a single cell, one generally, though sometimes 
two of the large white ones in a cell. The reddish colored ones I 
suppose are in a different stage of development, though ihe same 
parasite. In every cell iu which I have found any of those sent 
you, the eggs wore nearly or quite destroyed. But there is another, 
and a far more destructive enemy, viz. , the hot sun, which is hatch- 
ing them out by the million, though the parasites may continue 
their work after it ceases to operate. I shall be happy to do all I 
can to aid you in your investigations, — [Letter from C. E. Treadwell, 
Rockport, Atchison county, October 16, 1876, 

Yesterday we discovered on a warm southern exposure that our 
locust eggs were hatching out maggots. We break open the cocoons 
and the eg|gs on exposure to the sun for a few moments crawl away 
a worm. In warm places along the hedges the earth is alive with 
them. Is this a new development of the locust question? It would 
seem to be a confirmation of the theory you promulgated, as I 
understood it, at the time, I secured a few of the perfect cocoons 
which I enclose for your examination. We suppose these will do 
as the others do upon exposure to the sun. 

The people here are quite excited over the matter, hoping it 
may be a solution of the problem for next year, at least, and have 
deputed me to lay the matter before you. Any information you 
can give us in regard to this our latest development, will be thank- 
fully received and acknowledged. — [Letter from S. M. Pratt, M.D., 
Hiawatha, Brown County, Kansas, October 30, 1876. 

Various reports have been circulated in regard to the destruction 
of the eggs of tlie Rocky Mountain Locust {C(-doptenus spretus) by 
a worm. I am happy to state that these reports were substantiated 
yesterday by Mr, McLockhead, of Deer Creek, Kanawaka, twelve 
miles west of this city, who brought me a box of earth in which 
the eggs of the "hopper " had been abundantly deposited. To-day 
a similar box was secured from W. B. Barnett, Esq., of Hiawatha, 
Brown county. In both of these instances a large proportion of 
the eggs have been destroyed by a small, white larva. Many of 
the egg-cases, which ordinarily each contain from twenty to tliirty 
eggs, had no eggs in them, but were full of these worms or larvae, 
each one of which took the place of an egg which it had destroyed. 
Some of the egg-cases contained only two or three larvae with more 
than twenty sound eggs. I consider these to be the larvae of a 
parasitic Hymenopterous insect [it was subsequently verified as the 
Anthomyia under consideration] which I hope to obtain in the 
winged or perfect state, if I succeed in carrying them safely through 
their transformation. — [Prof, F, H. Snow, in Lawrence (Kansas) 
Journal, November 1, 1876. 

This good little friend, which simultaneously prevailed 
over so large an extent of country, is a small white mag- 



120 The Hoclcy Mountain Locust. 

got, (Fig. 21, c) of the same general form of the common 
meat maggots or "gentles," but measuring, when full grown 
and extended, not quite one-fourth of an inch in length. 
The head, with some of the anterior joints of the body, 
tapers and is retractile, and the jaws consist of two small 
hooks joined to a V-shaped, black, horny piece which, as 
it is retracted or extended, plays beneath the transparent 
skin. The hind or tail end is squarely docked oft', and 
contains two small yellowish-brown, eye-like spots, which 
are the principal spiracles or breathing pores. 

These small maggots are found in the locust egg-pods, 
either singly or in varying numbers, there sometimes being 
a dozen packed together in the same pod. They exhaust 
the juices of the eggs, and leave nothing but the dry and 
discolored shells ; and where they are not numerous 
enough to destroy all the eggs in the pod, their work, in 
breaking open a few, often causes all the others to rot. 

When fed to repletion, this maggot contracts to a little 
cylindrical, yellowish -brown pupa, (Fig, 21 5), about half 
the length of the outstretched and full-grown larva, and 
rounded at both ends. From this pupa, in the course of a 
week in warm weather, and longer as the weather is colder, 
there issues a small, grayish, two-winged fly (Fig. 21 a), 
about one-fourth of an inch long, the wings expanding 
about one-half of an inch, and in general appearance re- 
sembling a diminutive house-fly, except that the body is 
more slender and more taj^ering behind, and the wings 
relatively more ample. More carefully examined, the body 
is seen to be of an ash-gray color, tinged with rust-yellow, 
and beset with stifi", bristle-like hairs, those on the thorax 
stoutest, and those on the abdomen smaller but more uni- 
formly distributed. The wings are faintly smoky and 
iridescent. There are three dusky longitudinal stripes on 
the thorax, most distinct anteriorly, and another along the 



Natural Enemies. 121 

middle of the abdomen, most distinct in the male, which 
also differs from the female in the larger eyes, which meet 
much more closely on the top of the head than in the 
female, and in the face being whiter. 

The winter is passed mostly in the pupa state, though 
doubtless in some cases also in the winged state. 

The flies of this genus are characterized by the shortness 
of the antennae, and by the attenuated abdomen. The 
characters given to it are, however, by no means uniform, 
and as the species generally bear a very close resemblance 
to each other, and there have been a large number de- 
scribed in Europe (many of them very imperfectly), it 
becomes almost an impossibility to properly determine 
them. As the sexes often differ materially, it is also, 
except where they are reared from the larva, difficult to 
connect them ; and as the colors often become sordid and 
dull in the cabinet, many of the described species have no 
real existence. 

The flies frequent flowers, and often congregate and i:»lay 
in swarms in the air. Their eggs are white, smooth, oval, 
about 0.04 inch long, and are dropped near the food of the 
larva. In the larva state, these insects mostly feed on 
leguminous plants, and the carnivorous habit is excep- 
tional. The species affecting the cabbage, the onion, the 
radish, etc., have received different names, as brassicce, 
ceparum, raphani, etc., but several of them doubtless 
constitute but one species. A comparison of those reared 
from the locust eggs with the descriptions of brassicce and 
ceparum, has not enabled me to discover any constant dif- 
ferences, and they should perhaps all be referred to radi- 
cum, Linn. At all events, I feel that it is safest to define 
the insect under consideration merely as a variety of that 
species, leaving the proper determination of it to the 
future monographer of the genus. 



122 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

The probabilities are that, feeding normally on the roots 
of various plants, it found locust eggs to its liking, and 
multiplied rapidly as a result of the abundance of such 
eggs. 

Anthomyia radicum (Linn.) var. calopteni. • 

Egg — Oval, smooth, white, 0.04 inch long. 

Larva — Skin unarmed, 0.24 inch long when extended, of the 
normal form, the mandibular hooks black, quite conspicuous, and 
diverging at base. Prothoracic spiracles elongate. Anal spiracles 
minute, yellowish-brown, with the eight fleshy surrounding tuber- 
cles, small. 

Pwpa — Pale-brown, rounded at each end, with the prothoracic 
spiracles and lips anteriorly, and the anal spiracles and lower 
tubercles posteriorly, showing as minute points. 

Imago — ?. Average expanse, 0.48 inch. General color ash- 
gray, with a ferruginous hue, especially above, and a more or less 
intense metallic reflection. Face with white reflections below; eyes 
smooth, brown, encircled by the ground color, and this behind and 
on forehead, bordered by a brown line ; two similar lines at back 
of head from upper corners of eyes, and approaching to neck; 
forehead dusky brown, becoming bright yellowish-red toward base 
of antennae, and the brown forking at right angles around occiput. 
Trophi and antennae black, the style simple and somewhat longer 
than the whole antennae. Thorax with three dusky longitudinal 
lines, obsolete behind ; legs black, with cinereous hue beneath ; 
wings faintly smoky, with brown-black veins, the discal cross- 
vein straight and transverse, the outer one bent and more oblique ; 
balancers crumpled, yellowish. Abdomen with faint dusky medio- 
dorsal spots, broad at base, tapering and obsolescing toward end 
of each joint. 

In the 3, aside from the larger eyes, stronger bristles, and nar- 
rower, less tapering abdomen, with its additional joint — all charac- 
teristic of the sex — the face is whiter, and the medio-dorsal dark 
mark of abdomen continues. 

Described from 25 specimens of both sexes, reared from locust 
egg-feeding larvos. 

Specimens bred from cabbage and radish roots, and others in my 
cabinet, taken from the burrows (made in Osage Orange, in Mis- 
souri), of Crabro stirpicola, Pack., do not difi"er specifically. 



Natural Enemies. 



123 



The Common Flesh Fly {Sarcophaga carnaria, L.) — 
The red-tailed variety {sarracenim) of this ubiquitous 
insect, described and figured further on, as preying on the 
locust, also attacks its eggs. It is a larger maggot than 
the preceding, and contracts to a darker pupa which is 
not similarly rounded at each end, but has the hind end 
truncate, and the front end tapering. It sucks the eggs, 
as does the Anthomyia larva, but the parent fly is probably 
attracted principally to those which are addled or injured, 
as the pods in which I have found it have very generally 
been in a fluid state of decay. From three quarts of eggs 
I have obtained twenty-six of these flies. 

Undetermined Species. — Next to the Anthomyia Egg- 
parasite in importance is a much larger, more sluggish, 

yellowish grub (Fig. 22), 
measuring about half an 
inch when extended, 
which is found within or 
beneath the locust eggs, 
lying in a curved position, 
the body being bent so 
that the head and tail 
nearly touch each other. 
It is a smooth grub, with 
a very small, brown, flat- 
tened head, with the joints near the head swollen, and the 
hind end tapering, and with deep, translucent sutures 
beneath the joints, which sutures show certain vinous 
marks and mottlings, especially along the middle of the 
back. It exhausts the eggs, and leaves nothing but the 
shrunken and discolored shells. It has not yet been reared 
to the perfect state, but from the structure of its mouth 
it is evidently Hymenopterous, and will produce, without 
much doubt, some Ichneumon-fly. It has been found in 




Undetbbmined Egg-parasite of R, M. 
Locust. 



124 TTie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, and has destroyed 
about one per cent, of the eggs. 

The following letters refer to this species : 

The other day, as I was stroUing through the fields, I stopped to 
examine some eggs. I found the ground in spots quite full of white 
grubs, worms or maggots, whatever they may be called. Many of 
them were in the egg-pods, busy at worlc. I collected a few, and 
sent to you in a small vial by mail for your examination. The 
ground was high and dry where found. — [From S. D.Payne, Ka- 
sota, Le Sueur County, Minn., Sept. 28, 1876. 

I think the Silky Mite has done good service in destroying eggs 
in one or two counties, particularly Nobles. But we are getting, in 
addition, continual newspaper reports of white grubs destroying the 
eggs. I started out to see for myself, and have found a number, 
which I send you. — [From A. Whitman, St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 7, 
1876. 

This grub is found of various sizes as winter sets in, 
and hibernates without change. It will doubtless be reared 
to the perfect state the coming summer, and I give a more 
detailed description herewith. 

Average length, 0.50 inch. Body curved, glabrous, tapering pos- 
teriorly, swollen anteriorly. Color opaque whitish, with translucent 
yellowish mottlings, and some vinous marks at sutures, especially 
aiong medio-dorsum. Sutures deep. A lateral row of swellings. 
Head small, flattened, dark-brown, in five pieces, consisting above 
of a frontal ovoid piece, and two lateral pieces of somewhat similar 
form, and each bearing near tip a minute, two-jointed palpus ; be- 
neath of two broad, sub-triangular jaws, having forward and lateral 
motion, and each also bearing near the center, in a depression, a 
two-jointed feeler. A sjiiracle each side in a fold between joints 
2 and 3, andanother on each side of the penultimate joint, 12. None 
otherwise perceptible. 

Besides the three preceding species which were found 
destroying the eggs in 1876, and which, from their being 
generally found within the egg-pod, may be called parasitic, 
though they are not strictly so, I have also found the 
larvae of two species of Ground-beetles {Carabidce) attack- 
ing said eggs. One pale species (Fig. 23), evidently be- 



Natural Enemies. 



125 



longing to the genus Harpalus, is more particularly com- 
mon, and busy in the good work. It is an active creature, 
something over half an inch long, with powerful jaws and 
a light-brown head and prothorax, and the rest of the body 
pale, tapering posteriorly, [Pig. 23.] 

and ending in a stout 
proleg and two articulate 
appendages. For the en- 
tomological reader I ap- 
pend a more detailed de- 
scription : 

Color yellowish white; pro- 
thorax and head highly pol- 
ished yellowish-brown, the _. 
jaws darker. Head broad, 
depressed and rugose in front; 
jaws broad, robust, dark, and 
with but one strong middle 
tooth ; antennoe 5 jointed, 
joints 4 and 5 scarcely equaling 
Sin length ; maxilloe elongate, 
sub-cylindrical, with a 4-joint- 
ed outer and a 2-jointed in- 
ner palpus ; mentum elongate, 
its base soldered with the 
lower head; labrumalso elongate and with 2-j minted palpi; all trophi 
armed with stiff hair. Prothoracic joint, swollen, wider than head, 
twice as long as succeeding joint, horny, and with a darker anterior 
border, limited by a transverse stria posteriorly and marked with fine 
longitudinal strioe. Legs, except coxae, dark brown and thickly 
beset with short, spinous bristles of the same color. Abdomen 
tapering to end, with no horny plates, but each joint with two 
transverse rows of stiff yellowish hairs, the posterior rows strongest. 
Anal proleg stout, the cerci 4 jointed (joints 3 and 4 small and im- 
perfectly separated) and reaching but little beyond it ; eyes small, 
dark, and just behind base of antennae. Length of largest speci- 
mens 0.58 inch. 

Eight specimens feeding on eggs of Caloptenus spretus. 




Habpalttb? Larva that pkeys on Lo- 
cust Eggs-— a. larva from above, b. head, 
from beneath c .eg— en argcd. 



126 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 




. j, under side 



The other Ground-beetle, belonging probably to the 
same genus as the above, is of about the same size and has 
precisely the same structure. It is at once distinguished, 
however, by a series of broad, dark-brown, horny plates 
along the back, by paler horny pieces along the sides and 
beneath; by the darker, somewhat narrower prothorax; by 
[Fi?. 24.] the pale legs, 

and by the 
shorter anal 
cerci. I have 
found three 
specimens of 
this last feed- 
ing on the 

eggs, and one was sent to me as having the same 
habit, by Mr. Whitman, of St. Paul. Mr. G. F. Gaumer 
has sent me what he took to be a minute Rove-beetle 
[Staphylinidce) found feeding on the eggs, and they prove 
to be newly hatched specimens of the above Carabid 
larva. 

It is probable that most of the Carabid larvae will feed 
on the eggs, and I introduce the figure of a larger species 
(Fig. 24) and its probable parent, the Pennsylvania 
Ground-beetle {^Ilarpalus pennsylv aniens^ DeGeer, Fig.'25). 
I have every reason to believe, also, that certain Click- 
beetle larvae {ElateridcB) and certain Myriapods devour the 
eggs, while I have actually caught the common White 
Grub (larva of Lachnosterna fusca) feeding upon them. 



Haepaltts-' Larva:— 5. underside of head; ft 
of diflerent joints of body. 



INSECTS THAT DESTEOY THE ACTIVE LOCUST. 

In a general way it may be stated that all the larger 
predaceous species prey on the locusts. The Ground- 
beetles {CarabidcB) are conspicuous among these, and the 
Fiery Calosoma (Fig. 26) and the Elongate Ground-beetle 



Natural Enemies. 



12r 



(Fig. 27) are two of our largest and most common 
species. 



[Fig. 251 



[Fig. 26.] 




Pbnnstlvania Gkound-Bektlb. 




Calosoma calidum, with larva. 



Mr. H. A. Brous, who, while in Western Kansas in 1876, 
made careful notes of everything he observed relating to 
the Rocky Mountain Locust, has sent me a number of 

[Fig.' 28.] 
[Fig. 27.] 




Pasimachus elongatus. 



insects found preying upon it that 
had not before been observed at 
such work. Among them are 



various Asilus-flies,* and several aj 




MBLYCUILA CYLINDRIFORMIS. 



* Stenopogon consanguineus, Loew, a species with pale yellowish hairs on 
head and thorax, yellowish -brown wings and pale rufous legs and abdomen ; Pro- 
tnachus apivora, Fitch : Erax Bastardli (Fig. 29) ; seveiral allied species of Erax, 
and a species of Tobnerus. 



128 



Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 



Ground-beetles and Tiger-beetles.* More particularly 
noteworthy among these last is that large and most ele- 
gant dark -brown species which I herewith figure (Fig. 28), 
and which has been esteemed as a great rarity among 
Coleopterists. Mr. Brous found it much more common 
than it was generally supposed, and attributes its reputed 
[Fig. 29.) rarity to its secretive and nocturnal 

habits. It lives in holes in clayey 
banks, and issues in search of food 
only at night or early morn. Of 
Heteroptera, there is a Soldier-bug 
of the genus Apiomerus and allied 
to crassi2)es / and of Hymenoptera 
there are two Ichneumons — a Com- 
poplex and Ephialtes notanda^ Cress. 
— that were noticed pursuing the 
locusts, and are possibly parasitic 
upon them. The Preying Mantis 
{Mantis Carolina, L.) has also been observed feeding on 
them. 

The full grown locusts are subject to the attacks of the 
following parasites: 




Erax Bastardii 
b, puba. 



-(', ny; 



[Fig, 30.] 



The Locust Mite {Astoma gryllaria, 
LeBaron, Fig. 30.) — This mite, though insig- 
nificant in the matter of size, is nevertheless 
a most efficient enemy. Almost every one 
who has paid any attention to the locusts must 
have noticed that they are often more or less 
covered, especially around the base of the 
The Locust wings, with Small red mites, seldom larger 

Mite, sreatly en- ° . 

largeci. than the head of a pin. These mites have 

* Pasimachus elongatus, Lee. ; P. punciulatus, Hald. ; Calosoma obsoletuni. 
Say; Cicindela pidchra, Say ; C. scutellaris. Say; C.6-gitttata, Fabr.; C.fu!gida, 
Say ; V. vulgaris, Say ; C circumpicta, Laf. ; V. formosa. Say ; C. punctulala, 
Fabr. 




Natural Enemies. 129 



but six legs which, though easily visible when the animal 
first attaches itself, become more or less obsolete and in- 
visible as it swells and enlarges, though a careful examin- 
ation will generally reveal them at the anterior end of the 
body. The mite, therefore, more often presents to the 
ordinary observer a bright red, swollen, ovoid body, so 
immovable and firmly attached by its minute jaws, that 
those who are not aware of its nature might easily be led 
into believing it a natural growth or excrescence. In 
fact, it attacks the locust precisely as the different wood- 
ticks attack man and the lower mammals. 

This mite belongs to the genus Astotna, briefly charac- 
terized by Latreille for a very similar mite {Astona 2)ara- 
siticiim) which affects the common House-fly and several 
other insects. The specific name locustarura was first pro- 
posed for it by B. D. Walsh,* but Dr. LeBaron afterwards 
gave it the name of Atonia gryllaria,\ in connection with 
the following more detailed description : 

Thej'^are of an oblong, oval form, moderately convex and having 
an uneven surface, produced by four shallow depressions on tlie 
upper side, the two larger near the middle, and the others behiud 
them. The body has also two slight constrictions, giving it the 
appearance of being divided into three segments ; but the im- 
pressions are superficial and only visible at the sides. The whole 
surface is finely striate, under the microscope, the strise running in 
a waving transverse direction. The mouth-organs appear to be 
reduced to their minimum of development. The only part visible, 
externally, is a minute papilla, on each side of which are two 
bristles, the inner of which is stouter, tapering to an acute point, 
and curved inwards, or toward its fellow of the opposite side. 
They differ from the majority of Acarides in having but six legs, 
and these, being of but little use in so stationary a creature, are 

* Practical JEntomologist, I, p. l-it!. 

+ LeBaron'sSndlll. Ent. Rep., 187'2, p.l56. The author employs the term ^<oma, 
which, though at first go employed by Latieille, is corrected to Astoinain his "Gen- 
era Crustaceoruni et Insectorum," I, p. 162, (1806). 
9 



130 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

short and slender, projecting but little beyond the outline of the 
body. They are 6-jointed fin reality they are but 5-jointed, the 
middle joint much the shortest, and the terminal joint longest. — 
0. V. R.], garnished with short stiff bristles, and terminate in two 
slender, curved hooks. The anterior and middle legs are closely 
approximate and situated near the anterior extremity of the body ; 
the posterior are set a little nearer to each other, and a little in ad- 
vance of the middle of the body, being inserted at the posterior part 
of the anterior division or lobe. Four hairs project from the pos- 
terior extremity of the body. 

[Fig. 31.] The dorsal figure just given (Fig. 30,) ex- 

hibits the general appearance of the mite 
under a high magnifying power, and figure 
_^ ^^ 31 which represents a ventral view of the mite 
v^^ S^<^ found on our house-flies, and which is doubt- 
less the A. parasiticum of Latreille, will 
better show the structure of the head and 
AsTOMA, parapite legs. During some seasons scarcely a fly can 
ouse- y. j^^ caught that is not infested with a number 
of these blood-red mites, clinging tenaciously around the 
base of the wings. 

The genus Astoma (and the same is probably true of 
most other six-legged genera) is only the larval or imma. 
ture form of some other mite ; and this very Locust Mite 
may be the larva of the Silky Mite previously described, 
for aught we know to the contrary — so much is there yet 
to learn of the transformations of the mites. Indeed, 
Hermann, and some other arachnologists have actually 
referred Astoma to Trombidium. In speaking of the Irri- 
tating Harvest Mite {Leptas irritans, Riley, 6th Rep., p. 
122) — the so-called Jigger of the Mississippi Valley, which 
is, in all probability, also an immature form — I have stated 
my belief that its normal food must, apparently, consist of 
the juices of plants, and that *' the love of blood proves 
ruinous to those individuals who get a chance to indulge 




Natural Enemies. 131 

it ; for unlike the true chigoe, the female of which deposits 
eggs in the wound she makes, these harvest mites have no 
object of the kind, and, when not killed at the hands of 
those they torment, they soon die — victims to their san- 
guinary appetite."* The same argument may, I think, 
be applied to the Locust Mite. 

The Rocky Mountain Locust infested with this mite was 
sent to me in 1868 by Uriah Bruner, of Omaha, Neb., and 
in 1869 by Clark Irvine and C. Twine, of Oregon, T. K. 
Faulkner, of Whitesville, and Jno. P. Dopf, of Rock Port, 
Mo., — the latter gentleman stating that it was fast causing 
a diminution in the ranks of the common enemy. I have 
also received it from Minnesota and Kansas, and found it 
on several of our native locusts ; while the following pas- 
sage from an editorial account of the ravages of locusts in 
Kansas in 1869, which appeared in the Prairie Farmer, 
(Aug. 21, 1869,) is a sample of many newspaper accounts, 
and will show how efficient even a mite may be in killing: 

The course of the locusts was brought to a sudden halt by the 
operation of some parasite, appearing in the shape of small red 
mites, which attach themselves to the body, under the wings, where 
they suck the carcass to a dry shell; the dead bodies of the grass- 
hoppers almost covering some plants, where they have taken hold 
of a leaf or stalk, and clasped it, with a dead embrace; many others 
fall to the ground to die, too weak to rise again. In a half day's 
examination, where they were very thick, we failed to find more than 
two grasshoppers not so attacked, and this was not local; for a dis- 
tance of thirty miles across the country thej' were found similarly 
affected. 

Thk Anonymous Tachina-fly. — Our locust, like so many 
other insects, is also subject to the attacks of certain two- 
winged flies much resembling the common House-fly, but 
larger. One is the very same Tachina-fly (Tachina anon- 
yma) which I have bred from a number of other insects.f 



* Am. Naturalist, Vol. VII, p. 19. 

t See Mo. Ent. Repts., 4, p. 129, and 5, p. 133. 



132 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

I first reared this fly from specimens of the Rocky Moun- 
tain Locust sent me by Jos. C. Shattuck, Supt. of Public 
Instruction, Greeley, Col., who, July 14, 1873, wrote of 
its work as follows : 

* * Also, I will say that the grasshoppers which a month 
since seriously threatened to devour every green thing, have met 
with a mortal foe and been slain by millions. (Don't think " mil- 
lions" too large a word.) Very few have taken to "themselves 
wings and flown awa}'," as heretofore, but lie dead in the fields 
they lately ravaged. A small fly pierces them and deposits an egg 
while on the icing, (or on the jump), and, like Herod of old, " they 
are eaten of worms and give up the ghost." 

The following items refer to the same insect: 

A Grasshopper- Exterminating Fly.— It seems that the grasshop- 
pers that are so destructive to vegetation in many places in the 
central portion of the continent, are likely to find an enemy which 
threatens their rapid destruction. The Deer Lodge Independent 
says that a fly has made its appearance, closely resembling the com- 
mon house-fly, but much larger, and of a gray, mottled color, which 
deposits its eggs under the wings of the grasshopper. The egg is 
enclosed in a glutinous substance, which secures it in its position 
until the worm is matured [embryon developed]. It then pene- 
trates the body of the grasshopper, which speedily dies. The 
worm then burrows in the ground, and at the end of seventeen days 
comes forth a fly, ready to again commence the work of destruc- 
tion. Mr. Wm. Walker, of Dempsey Creek, informs the Independ- 
ent that twice during the past summer the grasshoppers threatened 
to destroy his crops, but the flies killed them so rapidly that tbey 
did him but little damage. As the grasshoppers were killed before 
depositing their eggs, it is generally believed that this plague is 
ended in the Deer Lodge Valley. — [Published in several Montana 
papers in the summer of 1874. 

A great many of the locusts seemed to be punctured on the back, 
and on pulling their heads off" after death (many were found dead) 
from one to three ordinary looking maggots would be found. Many 
farmers fear it might be an introduction of a new plague. May 
not this gentleman with his little gimlet in time prove the destroyer 
of the hateful locust?— [R. P. C. Wilson, Platte City, Mo., in pri- 
vate letter. 

I saw a hopper kicking about as if he could hardly move; I 
pulled him to pieces and found that he contained a footless grub, 
half an inch in length. In a short time more were procured, placed 
in a covered tumbler, where, in a little more than two weeks, the 
grubs changed to Tachina flies, very much resembling the common 
house-flies. * * When we remember what an enormous number 
of eggs (fly-blows) a fly will lay, and that each, in about a month, will 



Natural Enemies. 133 

be a perfect fly, it is seen that it would take but a few generations 
to clean out an army of grasshoppers. — [Oscar J. Strong, Rolfe, 
Pocahontas County, Iowa, in Western Farmer, Feb., 1869. 

Mr. Byers, in speaking of the locusts hatching in Colo- 
rado in 1865, {loc. cit.) says: "That upon attaining about 
half their full size, they were attacked by a fly, which, 
stinging them in the back between the roots of the wings, 
deposited one or more eggs, which produced a large white 
maggot. The worm subsisted upon the grasshopper, finally 
causing its death, when it cut its way out and entered the 
earth. In this way probably half were destroyed, often 
covering the ground, and filling the furrows in plowed 
fields with their carcasses. The remainder, when their 
wings were sufficiently developed, took to flight, moving 
southeast, and we lost trace of them on the great Plains." 

Mr. J. W. Crow, of Bigelow, Mo., in his correspondence 
with me, describes these maggots as infesting the " hop- 
pers" in Holt county in the fall of 1876 ; and in 1869 I 
received the parasite from John P. Dopf, of Rock Port, 
Atchison County, Mo., and have bred it from the Differen- 
tial Locust, figured further on, and from the Carolina Lo- 
cust {(Edipoda Carolina, L.) in St. Louis County. 

Finally, Mr. S. E. Wilber, of Greeley, Col., has published 
an account of what is evidently the same fly.* In this 
account, after showing how persistently the fly pursues 
the locust — leaving it no rest, and so effectually weaken- 
ing whole swarms as to render them harmless — he expresses 
the opinion that the constant importunities and annoyances 
of this fly are the cause of locust migrations. While, 
however, they may constitute a factor in the result, such a 
conclusion is too sweeping. 

The Yellow-tailed Tachina-fly {Exorista Jiavicauda., Ri- 
ley, Fig. 32) which is so useful in destroying the Army- 



* Popular Science Monthly, IV, p. 745. 




134 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

worm, will serve to illustrate the species, and, indeed, 
differs from it very little except in being somewhat larger, 
and in having the tip of the abdomen yellow. 

These Tachina-flies firmly fasten their eggs — which are 
[Pig. 32.] oval, white and opaque, and 

quite tough — to those parts of 
the body not easily reached by 
the jaws and legs of their vic- 
tim, and thus prevent the &gg 
from being detached. The 
slow-flying locusts are attack- 
ed while flying, and it is quite 
amusing to watch the frantic 
yellowtailed'tachina-flt. efforts which one of them, 
haunted by a Tachina-fly, will make to evade its enemy. 
The fly buzzes around, waiting her opportunity, and 
when the locust jumps or flies, darts at it and attempts 
to attach her egg under the wing or on the neck. The 
attempt frequently fails, but she perseveres until she usu- 
ally accomplishes her object. With those locusts which 
fly readily, she has even greater difliculty ; but though the 
locust tacks suddenly in all directions in its efforts to avoid 
her, she circles close around it and generally succeeds in 
accomplishing her purpose, either while the locust is yet 
on the wing, or, more often, just as it alights from a flight 
or a hop. The young maggots hatching from these eggs 
eat into the body of the locust, and after rioting on the 
fatty parts of the body — leaving the more vital parts 
untouched — they issue and burro V7 in the ground, where 
they contract to brown, egg-like pupae, from which the fly 
issues either in the same season or not till the following 
spring. A locust infested with this parasite is more lan- 
guid than it otherwise would be ; yet it seldom dies till 
the maggots have left. Often in pulling off the wings of 



Natural Enemies. 



135 




such as were hopping about, the bodies have presented the 
appearance of a mere shell, filled with maggots ; and so 
efficient is this parasite that the ground in parts of the 
Western States is often covered with the Rocky Mountain 
Locust dead and dying from this cause. 

The Common Flesh-fly {Sarcojyhaga carnaria, Linn.) 

— This fly, which is at once distinguished from the Tach- 

ina-fly by the style of [Fig. 33.] 

the antenna, being hairy 

(Fig. 33, i,) instead of 

smooth, is also a great 

enemy of the Rocky 

Mountain Locust, 

though I think it must 

be looked upon more as 

a ■soavenjyer tlian as an Sakcophaga sahkacknixe:— a, larva-, 6, pupa;c, 
d, &Cd,veugei LlldU d,S a,U fly, ti,e hair lines showing average natural lengths! 
nntivfi mracito onrl f'. enlarged head and first Joint of larva, showing 

rti^Livc p<ii£ioii,c, aiiu curved hooks, lower lip (ff; and prothoracic spir- 

. 1 , -4. • , , . •> acles ; e, end of body of same, showing stigmata 

mat It IS attracted (/) and prolegs and vent; h, tarsal claws of dy, 
. ,, with protecting pads; ;, antenna of same— eii- 

more especially to those larged. 

specimens which are feeble or already dead. I have 
r.'ceived it among the Tachina parasites sent by Mr. Shat- 
tuck, from Colorado, and from Professor C. E. Bessey, of 
Ames, Iowa, who bred it from the Differential Locust, and 
published the following description of its work : 

A Commendable Fly. — During the summer I noticed that many 
of the large yellow grasshoppers {Cdloptenus differentialis) were in- 
fested by the maggot of a species of fly very ncirly resembling, if 
uot identical with, the common Flesh-fiy {Sarcophaga carnaria.) 
Many of the grasshoppers were almost completely eaten out wiien 
found, retaining just sufficient strength to hop feebly over the 
ground. I estimate that this particular species of grasshopper was 
diminished in numbers at least one-tenth, possibly one-eighth, by 
these new friends. It is to be hoped that these new parasites wii! 
increase rapidly. Professor C. V. Riloy informs me that tlie Mi- 
gratory Locust (Ciiloptemts spretvs) is also infested by a similar one. 
Thus far, however, I have failed to detect any in the specimens 
collected in this vicinity. 



136 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

I have also bred it from a number of our native locusts 
whose carcasses — forsaken by the sarcophagous larvje — 
may quite frequently be seen fastened to the upright stems 
of different plants in the fall of the year. I have also bred 
it from the common Carolina Mantis,* which it attacked 
while living, and have known it to infest the common 
Walking-stick {^Spectrmn fenioratimi). Indeed, the spe- 
cies is a most widely-spread and general scavenger, occur- 
ring m most civilized countries, and feeding, as a rule, 
on dead and decaying animal matter, and only exception- 
ally on living insects. By way of illustrating its trans- 
formations, I introduce a figure of the Sai'racenia Flesh-fly 
which feeds on the dead insects caught in those curious 
traps, the trumpet leaves {Sarracenia) , and which is 
probably only a variety {sarracenice, Riley) of carnaria. f 
These flies lay elongate and delicate eggs, which hatch 
very quickly. They sometimes hatch, in fact, within the 
ovaries, so that the fly gives birth to living larvae. These 
are distinguished from those of the Tachina-flies by being 
more concave and truncated at the posterior end (see Fig. 
33, a). The Tachina larva is rounded posteriorly, with a 



* On the 18th of October, 1868, at South Pass, 111., I found fastenefl to a tree 
a large female Mantis, still alive, but with the abdomen hanging down, partially 
decomposed and filled with Sarcophaga larvre. These remained In the larva state 
in the groand till the next July, but gave forth the flies at the end of that month. 
The flies marked in my cabinet Sarcophaga carnaria, var. inanlivora, diflfer in no 
respect from the common carnaria, except in size, seven not averaging more 
than 0.20 inch in length. 

t The flies bred from Caloptenus have the tip of the abdomen reddish, as in 
Sarcophaga sarracenue, and indued are undistmguishable from the smaller speci 
mens of this last. The larva differs, however, in having the surface more coarsely 
granulated, it being regularly and uniformly covered with minute papilte , in the 
less conspicuous, prothoracic spiracles; in the smaller but deeper anal cavity ; and 
in the rim of this cavity having the twelve tubercles more conspicuous. The 
pupa also has the anal cavity smaller, more closed, but deeper; and the prothoracic 
spiracles less prominent. In these respects it agrees more closely with the typical 
carnaria, as described by Packard, and I have little doubt but all these difl'erences • 
are simply varietal. 



Natural Enemies. 137 



small, spiracular cavity, easily closed and having a smooth 
nm : it contracts to a pupa, which is quite uniformly 
rounded at each end. The Sarcophaga larva is more 
truncate behind, with fleshy warts on the rim of the spirac- 
ular cavity, and with a more tapering head : it contracts 
to a pupa, which is also truncate behind, and more taper- 
ing in-front, where the prothoracic spiracles show as they 
never do in Tachina. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

HOW BEST TO PREVENT LOCUST INJURIES. 

The means to be employed against the ravages of this 
Insect in the more fertile country subject to its periodical 
visitations, but in which it is not indigenous, may be 
classed under five heads ; 1, Encouragement of natural 
agencies ; 2, Artificial means of destroying the eggs ; 3, 
Artificial means of desti'oying the unfledged young ; 4, 
Remedies against the mature or winged insects ; 5, Pre- 
vention. 

ENCOURAGEMENT OF NATURAL ENEMIES. 

The natural enemies enumerated in Chapter VII should 
be encouraged as far as it is possible to encourage them. 
Man can do little to aid the multiplication of the more 
minute animals and parasites, but much to assist that of 
the larger animals, especially the birds mentioned. These 
should be protected by stringent laws, firmly carried out, 
restraining the wanton destruction in which sportsmen so 
often indulge. During the past few years, several of the 
" Western " States have passed good laws for the protec- 
tion of our feathered friends, but the laws are often a dead- 
letter for want of enforcement. 

DESTRUCTION OF THE EGGS. 

The fact that man can accomplish most in his warfare 
against locusts by destroying the eggs has long been 

(139) 



140 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

recognized by European and Asiatic governments liable to 
suffer from the insects. The eggs, as we have seen, are 
laid in masses, just beneath the surface of the ground, 
seldom to a greater depth than an inch ; and high, dry 
ground is preferred for the purpose. Very often the ground 
is so completely filled with these egg-masses, that not a 
spoonful of the soil can be turned up without exposing 
them, and a harrowing or shallow plowing will cause the 
surface to look quite whitish as the masses break up aind 
bleach from exposure to the atmosphere. Great numbers 
will be destroyed by such harrowing or plowing, as there- 
by not only are they more liable to the attacks of natural 
enemies, but they lose vitality through the bleaching 
and desiccating influence of the dew and rain and sun. 
Wherever hogs and cattle can be turned into fields where 
the eggs abound, most of these will be destroyed by the 
rooting and tramping. 

EXPERIMENTS WITH THE EGGS, AND CONCLUSIONS DRAWN 
THEREFROM. 

There are many questions respecting the manner in which 
the eggs of this locust are affected under different condi- 
tions, which are of intense practical interest, and which are 
frequently discussed with no definite result being arrived 
at, and no positive conclusion drawn. Such are, for 
instance, the influence of temperature, moisture and dry- 
ness upon them; the effects of exposing them to the air, 
of breaking open the pods, of harrowing or plowing them 
under at different depths, of tramping upon them. Every- 
thing, in short, that may tend to destroy them or prevent 
the young locusts hatching, is of vital importance. With 
a view of settling some of these questions, and in the hope 
of reaching conclusions that might prove valuable, I carried 
on, during the past winter, a series of experiments, some 



Practical Considerations. 141 

of which are herewith summed up. By reference to the 
meteorological table given on p. 152, the exact temperature 
at any of the dates mentioned, up to March 10, can be 
ascertained. 

Experiments to test the Effects of alternately 
Freezing and Thawing. — The eggs in the following 
series of exj^eriments were obtained early in November, 
at Manhattan, Kansas, under similar conditions. They 
were mostly in a fluid state at the time, and none but 
good and perfect masses were used. They were all 
carefully placed in the normal position at the surface 
of the ground, in boxes that could be easily removed 
from place to place. The experiments commenced No- 
vember 10th, 1876, and ended in April, 1877. Dur- 
ing November and December the weather was severe, 
while during January and February it was largely mild 
and genial for the season. In March again there was much 
frost. 

The temperature in my office, into which all the eggs 
when not exposed were brought, ranged during the day 
from 65° to 70° F., rarely reaching to 75°. During the 
night it never dropped below 40°, and averaged about 55°. 

Experiment 1. — Fifty egg-masses were exposed to frost from 
November 10th to Jamiary 10th, and then taken in-doors. In twenty 
days they commenced hatching, and continued to do so for thirty- 
eight days thereafter. 

Experiment 2. — Fifty egg-masses exposed at the same time to 
frost. Brought in-doors on December 10th. On December 31st they 
commenced hatching numerously and continued to hatch till the 
10th of January, 1877, when the remainder were exposed again. 
The weather being subsequently mild, some hatched on each warm 
day until the 26th. None hatched thereafter, and upon examina- 
tion, subsequently, all were found to have hatched. 

Experiment 3. — Fifty egg-masses exposed at same time. Brought 
in-doors December 1st. Kept there till the 22d without any of them 



142 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

hatching. Exposed again for three weeks, and then brought in- 
doors on the 12th of January. They commenced hatching two 
days thereafter, and continued till the 29th. Subsequent exam- 
ination showed them all to have hatched. 

Experiment 4. — One hundred egg-pods exposed at the same time, 
but alternately brought in-doors and exposed again every fourteen 
days. Some commenced hatching during the second term in- doors; 
others continued during the warm days of the third exposure, and 
all had hatched by the sixth day of the third term in-doors. 

Experiment 5. — A lot of one hundred egg-masses alternately ex- 
posed and brought in-doors every week. During the first four terms 
of exposure they were continuously frozen, while during the next 
four the weather was frequently mild enough to permit hatching. 
They first began to hatch during the fourth term in-doors, and con- 
tinued to hatch, except during the colder days when exposed, until 
the seventh term in-doors, during which the last ones escaped. 

Experiment 6. — Many hundred egg-masses kept out-doors the 
whole time, first commenced hatching March 2d, and continued 
for thirty-eight days thereafter. 

Experiment 7. — Many hundred pods, kept in-doors till December 
15th, and hatching from November 28th up to that time, were then 
exposed, and continued to hatch whenever the weather permitted, 
up to April 10th. 

Experiment 8. — A lot of one hundred pods that had been hatching 
in-doors from November 19lh, were exposed to frost January 15th, 
and brought in-doors again January 28th, where they continued 
hatching till February 10th. Every one was subsequently found 
to have hatched. 

Experiment 9. — A lot of one hundred under same conditions as 
in Experiment 8, up to January 28th. They were then exposed 
again and brought in-doors February 16th, when they commenced 
hatching and continued to do so till the 27th. All were found sub- 
sequently to have hatched. 

Two important conclusions are deducible from the above 
experiments : 

First — The eggs are far less susceptible to alternate freez- 
ing and thawing than most of us, from analogy, have been 
inclined to believe. Those who have paid attention to the 



Practical Considerations. 143 

aixbject, know full well that the large proportion of insects 
that hibernate on or in the ground, are more injuriously 
affected by a mild, alternately freezing and thawing winter, 
than by a steadily cold and severe one ; and the idea has 
quite generally prevailed, that it was the same- with regard 
to our locust eggs. But, if so, then it is more owing to the 
mechanical action which, by alternate expansion and con- 
traction of the soil, heaves the pods and exposes them, 
than to the effects of the varying temperatures. 

Second — That suspended development by frost may 
continue with impunity for varying periods, after the em- 
bryon is fully formed and the young insect is on the verge 
of hatching. Many persons, having in mind the well 
known fact that birds' eggs become addled if incubation 
ceases before completion, when once commenced, would, 
from analogy, come to the same conclusion with regard to 
the locust eggs. But analogy here is an unsafe guide. 
The eggs of insects hibernate in all stages of embryonic 
development, and many of them with the larva fully formed 
and complete within. The advanced development of the 
locust embryo, frequently noticed in the fall, argues nothing 
but very early hatching as soon as spring opens. Their 
vitality is unimpaired by frost. 

Experiments to test the Influence of Moisture upon 
THE Eggs. — The following series of experiments was made 
with eggs also bi-ought from Manhattan, Kansas. They 
were dug up in December, and were sound, and much in the 
same condition as those in the preceding series. - 

The water in all but the last three, or Experiments 23, 
24 and 25, was kept in my office at the temperature already 
stated, and changed only when there was the least tendency 
to become foul. In the alternate submergence and draining, 
the eggs were submitted to the most severe hygrometric 



144 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locnist. 

changes ; the warm atmosphere of the room liaving great 
drying power. 

Expenment 10. — Ten egg-masses kept uuder water in-doors from 
December 5tli to December 26th, 1876, the water becoming quite 
foul. They were then removed to earth and kept in a hatching 
temperature. They commenced hatching January 11th, 1877, and 
continued to do so till February 5th — all having hatched. 

Experiment 11. — Twenty egg-masses kept under water in-doors 
from December 26th, 1876, till January 2d, 1877 ; then left dry till 
the 9th ; then submerged again till the 16th, when they were drained 
again. On the 20th, eighteen young hatched, and others continued 
hatching till the 23d, when they were submerged again. From the 
26th to 30th, a few hatched under water, successfully getting rid of 
the post-natal pellicle, and living for some hours afterward in the 
water. On the 30th they were drained again, and continued to 
hatch. On February 6th, they were again immersed, and continued 
to hatch on the 7th. On the 15th, 22d, 29th, and March 7th, they 
were alternately drained and immersed ; but none hatched after 
February 7th, and the remainder proved upon examination to have 
been destroyed, most of them being quite rotten. 

Experiment 12. — Two egg-masses taken from the lot in Experi- 
ment 11, on February 7th, and placed in moist earth. Every egg 
subsequently hatched. 

Experiment 13. — Two egg-masses taken from the lot in Experi- 
ment 11, on February 22d, and placed in moist earth. All hatched. 

Experiment 14. — Twenty egg-masses alternately immersed and 
drained every two weeks from December 26th till March 6lh. None 
hatched, but three-fourths of the eggs were at this date sound, 
the embryon full-formed and active as soon as released, but pale, 
and evidently too feeble to burst the egg-shell. The rest were 
killed and more or less decomposed. 

Experiment 15. — Two egg-masses, after immersion for two weeks, 
were placed in moist earth. They began hatching twenty-two days 
afterward, and continued to do so for six days. It was subsequently 
found that onl}'^ seven out of forty-eight eggs had collapsed and 
failed to hatch. 

Experiment 16. — Two egg-masses immersed for two weeks and 
drained for two weeks; then placed in moist earth. Six days after- 
ward they commenced hatching, and continued to do so for two 



Practical Considerations. 145 

days. Subsequently examined, twenty-eight out of fifty-four eggs 
had perished. 

Experiment 17. — Two egg-masses alternately immersed, drained, 
and immersed again every two weeks, were placed in moist earth. 
They commenced hatching two days afterward, and continued to 
do so for twelve days. Upon subsequent examination, twenty-three 
out of fifty-two had perished. 

Experiment 18. — Twenty egg-masses immersed from Dec. 26th, 
1876, to Jan. 16th, 1877; then drained till Feb. 6th; then immersed 
till Feb. 27th; then drained again. On Feb. 3d, while dry, they 
commenced hatching numerously, and a few continued for two days 
to hatch while immersed. An examination March 7th, showed 
about half of them still alive, the rest rotten. On March 27th they 
were drained again, but none subsequently hatched — all having 
rotted and dried up. 

Experiment 18a. — Two masses in same conditions as in Expt. 18 
till Feb. 27th, were placed in moist earth and all the eggs hatched 
March 7—12. 

Experiment 19. — Twenty egg-masses immersed from Dec. 26th, 
1876, to Jan. 23d, 1877; then drained till Feb. 20th; then submerged 
again. They commenced hatching on the 6th of Feb., and con- 
tinued two days after the second submergence. On the 7th of 
March but about five per cent, had rotted. On March 20th they 
were drained again, but none subsequently hatched, except five 
eggs from two pods at once placed in earth. 

Experiment 20. — Two egg-masses immersed for four weeks; then 
drained for two weeks; then immersed for one week; then placed 
in moist earth. They commenced hatching seven days afterward, 
and continued to do so for six days. Subsequently examined, one 
of the masses was rotten; the eggs in the other had all hatched. 

Experiment 21. — Twenty egg-masses kept from Dec. 26th, 1876, 
in earth saturated with moisture. On Feb. 23d, 1877, they com- 
menced hatching, and continued to do so till March 7th, when all 
were found to have hatched, except one pod, which was rotten. 

Experiment 22. — Twenty egg-masses, alternately placed every 
five days, from Dec. 26th, 1876, in earth saturated with moisture 
and in earth which was very dry. Commenced hatching Feb. 14th, 
and continued till March 7th, when, upon examination, all had 
hatched, except nine of the pods, which were rotten. 

Experiment 23. — Twenty egg-masses immersed and exposed 
10 



146 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

out-doors Dec. 26th, 1876. From that time till April 9th, the water 
was frozen and completely thawed at nine different times, the ves- 
sel containing them, which was of glass and admitted the sunlight, 
several times breaking. The changes were as follows: Frozen till 
Jan. 10th; then thawed till the 12th; then frozen till the 18th; then 
thawed till the 20th; then frozen till the 26th; then thawed till Feb. 
20th; then partly frozen till the 22d; then thawed till the 26th; 
then frozen till the 27th; then thawed till March 5th; then frozen till 
March 10th; then thawed till March 15th; then frozen till the 16th; 
then thawed till the 24th; then frozen till the 25th. Examined on 
the 7tli of March only one pod was found rotten; the others appar- 
ently sound. On the 9th of April, all with the exception of twelve 
eggs were found rotten, the masses having become disintegrated 
and the eggs for the most part lying singly at the bottom. 

Experiment 24. — Two egg-masses under same conditions as 
in Expt. 23, till Feb. 9th, when they were brought in-doors and 
placed in earth. One was dried up on the 16th; the other com- 
menced hatching on the 27th, and when examined on March 7th, 
all the eggs in it were found to have hatched. 

Experiment 25. — Two egg-masses under same conditions as in 
Expt. 23, till Feb. 27th, when they were placed in earth in-doors. 
Examined March 7th, they were found sound, and near the hatch- 
ing point. On March 20th they commenced hatching. 

Experiment 25a. — Two egg-masses, under same conditions as 
in Expt. 23, up to March 6th, were then placed in earth in-doors. 
They commenced hatching March 23d, and continued till April 3d. 
Subsequently examined, but eight out of the fifty-four eggs were 
shrunken and dead. 

Experiment 25b. — Two egg-masses under same conditions as in 
Expt. 23, up to March 27th, were then placed in earth, as above. 
April 14th — 20th, ten hatched. Subsequently examined, the rest 
were found rotten. 

Experiment 25c. — The twelve eggs remaining April 9th, from 
Expt. 23, were placed in earth. Five out of the twelve hatched 
April 20th — 26th. The rest were subsequently found rotten. 

These experiments establish a few facts that were some- 
what unexpected. The insect is a denizen of the high and 
arid regions of the Northwest, and has often been observed 
to prefer dry and sunny places, and to avoid wet land, for 



Practical Considerations. 147 

purposes of ovipositing. The belief that moisture was 
prejudicial to the eggs, has, for these reasons, very gener- 
ally prevailed. The power which they exhibit of retaining 
vitality, and of hatching under water or in saturated 
ground, is, therefore, very remarkable — the more so when 
viewed in connection with the results obtained in the suc- 
ceeding experiments. That the eggs should hatch after 
several weeks submergence, and that the young insect 
should even throw off the post-natal pellicle, was, to me, 
quite a surprise, and argues a most wonderful toughness 
and tenacity. After they had been dried and soaked for 
over six weeks, under conditions that approach those of 
spring, I found a good proportion of the eggs to contain 
the full-formed and living young, which, though somewhat 
shrunken, and evidently too weak to have made an exit, 
were still capable of motion. The water evidently retards 
hatching. An examination of the submerged eggs that 
remained unhatched long after others had hatched, which 
had been under similar treatment up to a certain time, and 
then transferred to earth, showed all the parts to be unusu- 
ally soft and flaccid. Yet, when once life has gone, the 
e^g would seem to rot quicker in the water than in the 
ground. 

The results of Experiments 23 — 2oc prove conclusively 
that water in winter time, when subject to be frozen, is 
still less injurious to the eggs. 

Altogether, these experiments give us very little encour- 
agement as to the use of water as a destructive agent; 
and we can readily understand how eggs may hatch out, 
as they have been known to do, in marshy soil, or soil too 
wet for the plow; or even from the bottom of ponds that 
were overflowed during the winter and spring. While a 
certain proportion of the eggs may be destroyed by alter- 
nately soaking and drying the soil at short-repeated inter- 



148 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

vals, it is next to impossible to do this in practice during 
the winter season as effectually as it was done in the 
experiments ; and the only case in which water can be 
profitably used is where the land can be flooded for a few 
days just at the period when the bulk of the eggs are 
hatching. 

Experiments to test the Effects of Exposure to 
THE Free Air. — The eggs in the following series were 
obtained at Manhattan, Kansas, in November, and all 
under similar conditions. 

Experiment 26.— A large number of egg-masses were thoroughly 
broken up and the single eggs scattered over the surface of the 
ground out-doors early in December. By the 23d of Februaiy all 
had perished, and most of them had collapsed and shriveled. 

Experiinent 27. — A large number of pods were partly broken up 
and exposed as in Expt. 26. On the 10th of March the outer eggs 
were mostly dead and shrunken, but a few of the protected ones 
were yet plump, the embryon well advanced and apparently sound. 
Placed in earth they subsequently hatched. 

Experiment 28. — A large number of unbroken pods were exposed 
under similar conditions as in the preceding Expts. By March 
10th fully three-fourths of the eggs had perished, and by April 1st 
all had perished. 

Experiment 29. — Fifty egg-masses were kept in-doors in an open- 
mouthed bottle in perfectly loose and dry earth from November 
6th. Fully eight per cent, of the eggs had hatched by December 
28th, when hatching ceased, and a subsequent examination showed 
the rest to have shrunken and perished. 

It is very evident from the above experiments that we 
can do much more to destroy the eggs by bringing into 
requisition the universally utilizable air, than we can by 
the use of water. The breaking up of the mass and 
exposure of the individual eggs to the desiccating effects 
of the atmosphere, effectually destroys them; and when to 



Practical Considerations. 149 

this is added the well known fact that thus exposed they 
are more liable to destruction by their numerous enemies, 
we see at once the importance of this mode of coping with 
the evil. 

Experiments to test the Effects of Burying at 

DIFFERENT DePTHS, AND OF PRESSING THE SoiL. The 

following series of experiments was made with eggs 
obtained at Manhattan, Kansas, early in November, and 
similar in condition to those in the first series. Large tin 
cylindrical boxes, made of difierent depths, and varying 
from four to eight inches in diameter, were used ; and in 
order to hasten the result they were kept in-doors at the 
temperature already mentioned. The soil in all the boxes 
was finely comminuted and kept in uniform and moderately 
moist condition. It was gently pressed with the fingers, 
80 as to approach in compactness the surface soil of a well 
cultivated garden. In each instance the eggs were placed 
in the center of the box, A large number of eggs were 
buried at different depths out-doors where they were 
under natural conditions of soil pressure and temperature. 
The soil was a tolerably stiff yellow clay, and was pretty 
well compacted by many heavy rains, after the frost was 
thawed out. The results of the out-door experiments 
comport with those made in the boxes. The eggs being 
placed at every depth from one to eighteen inches, and 
each batch covered with a wire screen, the result was accu- 
rately determined. All at one inch below the surface 
hatched ; about one-third of those at two inches managed 
to escape, and none from any greater depth. Examined 
May 12th, they had hatched down to a depth of twelve 
inches, and worked their way upward, and horizontally, 
seldom extending more than one inch in the former, or 
more than two inches in the latter direction. Most of 



150 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

those at greater depths were at that time unhatched. In 
looser soil, they would doubtless have managed to push 
somewhat farther. 

Experiment 30. — Ten egg-masses were placed just one inch be- 
low the surface in the center of a box four inches in diameter. The 
young began to appear January 30th, when it was noticed that 
every one came up at the side of the box, between the earth and 
the tin, where there was more or less shrinking of the former from 
the latter. Upon pressing the earth more firmly around the border, 
the issuing of the young ceased. Upon examining the eggs, March 
7th, it was found that they had all hatched. A few of the young^ 
were still alive, and endeavoring to escape ; the rest had died in the 
effort. They had made no progress upward through the pressed 
surface, but had pushed horizontally as the looser earth permitted. 

Experiment 31, — From ten egg-masses, placed two inches be- 
neath the surface, the young commenced issuing from the sides, 
as in the preceding Expt., January 31st. None issued directly 
through the surface of the soil, and none issued after the border 
was pressed more firmly to the tin. Subsequent examination 
showed the soil penetrated in devious directions, but none of the 
insects had reached higher than within three-quarters of an inch of 
the surface. 

Experiment 32. — Ten egg-masses placed three inches below the 
surface. The young began, January 31st, to issue from the sides, 
as in Expts. 30, 31. Upon pressing the ground more firmly around 
the borders, none afterwards issued, and subsequent examination 
showed that the young had tunneled the earth in tortuous passages 
toward the sides, and perished there; without reaching nearer than 
within an inch of the surface in the middle of the box. 

Experiment 33. — Ten egg-masses placed six inches below the 
surface. On February 1st, the young commenced to issue, as in the 
preceding Expts., from the side, and continued to do so till the 
4th, when the earth was pressed more closely to the tin. None 
issued afterwards. Subsequent examination showed that some had 
succeeded in working their way upward through the soil to within 
two inches of the surface ; but most had reached the sides, and. 
there collected and perished between the tin and the soil. 

Other experiments made in glass tubes where the move- 
ments of the insects could be watched, all produced results 



Practical Considerations. 151 

similar to those above given ; and all point to the conclu- 
sion that where the newly-hatched insect has not the 
natural channel of exit (described on p, 72) which was pre- 
pared by the mother, it must inevitably perish if the soil 
be moderately compact, unless cracks, fissures, or other 
channels reaching to the surface are at hand. 

From the above four series of experiments, I would 
draw the following deductions, which have important 
practical bearing : 

First — Frost has no injurious effect on the eggs ; its 
influence is beneficial rather, in weakening the outer shell. 

Second — Alternate freezing and thawing is far less inju- 
rious to them than we have hitherto supposed, and tends 
to their destruction, if at all, indirectly, by exposing them 
to the free air. 

Third — The breaking open of the egg-masses, and ex- 
posure of the eggs to the atmosphere, is the most effectual 
way of destroying them. Hence the importance of har- 
rowing in the fall is obvious. 

Fourth — Moisture has altogether less effect on the vital- 
ity of the eggs than has heretofore been supposed, and 
will be of little use as a destructive agent, except where 
land can be overflowed for two or three days at the time 
when the bulk of the young are hatching. 

Fifth — Plowing under of the eggs will be effectual in 
destroying them, just in proportion as the ground is af'ter- 
ward harrowed and rolled. Its effects will also necessarily 
vary with the nature of the soil. Other things being equal, 
fall plowing will have the advantage over spring plowing, 
not only in retarding the hatching period, but in permit- 
ting the settling and compacting of the soil ; while where 
the ground is afterwards harrowed and rolled, the spring 
plowing will prove just as good, and on light soils perhaps 
better. 



152 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



TEMPERATURE AT ST. LOUIS, MO., OP WINTER OP 1876--7. 



1876. 


Max 


Min 


Mean 


1877. 


Max. 


Min. 


Mi:aD. 


November 15 

16 


41 
U 
47 
47 
36 
45 
47 
42 
45 
51 
47 
38 
43 
39 
33 
27 
20 
2» 
29 
34 
45 
47 
47 
40 
11 
37 
55 
60 
50 
38 
45 
44 
27 
22 
37 
•43 
43 
37 
21 
19 
21 
21 
24 
26 
19 
21 
U 

24 
2t 
26 
42 
42 
43 
35 
13 
28 
35 


30 
35 
40 
25 
22 
31 
32 
23 
31 
3i 
81 
30 
31 
23 
27 
15 

4 

5 

12 
24 
24 
83 
31 

3 
—5 

9 
23 
36 
38 
18 
12 

4 
13 

2 
18 
23 
23 
20 
13 

n 

13 
13 
15 

13 
4 

17 

13 
8 
11 
19 
29 
32 
13 
-4 
1 
21 


37 

39 
41 
31 
32 
38 
37 
33 
■ 36 
41 
40 
34 
39 
28 
29 
16 
14 
16 
23 
30 
3^1 
3^ 
S9 
15 
5 
31 
44 
48 
42 
27 
36 
12 
20 
16 
2S 
33 
?4 
26 
19 
15 
18 
13 
21 
21 
IJ 
15 
24 

14 
15 
21 
33 
£6 
37 
21 

19 
31 


January 11 

12 


52 
32 
27 
3» 
43 
23 
40 
46 
50 
46 
37 
87 
32 
31 
48 
51 
50 
57 
57 
65 
66 
69 
E6 
48 
46 
40 
49 
53 
47 
EO 
58 
58 
52 
36 
44 
53 
47 
50 
66 
58 
48 
65 
53 
44 
33 
33 
43 
48 
50 
47 
47 
49 
S2 
40 
55 
57 
55 
23 
41 


32 
14 
10 
22 
23 
9 
20 
35 
39 
21 
19 
23 
10 
19 
22 
32 
31 
33 
38 
48 
53 
50 
44 
35 
32 
28 
34 
38 
36 
33 
37 
42 
29 
28 
30 
31' 
33 
34 
31 
31 
27 
34 
44 
33 
29 
28 
28 
28 
32 
39 
37 
18 
14 
26 
30 
36 

16 


40 

19 


17 


13 


22 


•> 18 


14 


31 


19 


15 


33 


20 


16.. 

17 


18 


21 


33 


22 


18 


42 


23 


19 


45 


24 

2i 

26 


20 

21 

22 


22 
32 
26 


27 


23 


24 


•' 23 


24 


26 


29 


25 


36 


30 


26 


39 




27 


41 


2 


28 


47 


3 


29 


49 


4 


30 

31 


S7 


5 


59 


6 


February 1 


59 


7 




49 


8 • 


3 


37 


9 


4 


39 


10 

11 


5 

6 


33 
41 


12 




46 


13 


8 


42 


14 


9 


44 


15 


10 


48 


16 


11 


52 


17 


12 


32 


18 


13 


33 


19 


14 


38 


20 


15. 


44 


21 


16 


40 


22 


17 


42 


23 


18 


S3 


24 


19 


b7 


25 


20 


39 


26 


21 


51 


27 


22 


47 


28 


23 

- 24 


38 


29 


82 


30 


■• 25 


31 


31.:::::::;::.. 


26 


37 






40 


1877. 


28 


43 




March 1 


43 




2 

3 . . 


39 




29 


3 


4 


26 


4 




34 


5 


" 6 


46 


6 




47 




8 


23 


8 


9 


13 


9-. 


10 


31 


10 







Practical Considerations. 153 

HARROWING IX FALL. 

So satisfied have I been for some time that systematic 
harrowing of the eggs, or their exposure by other means, 
in the fall, is the best work that can be done, that I have 
earnestly urged its enforcement by law whenever the soil 
in any township is known to be well charged with eggs. 
A revolving harrow or cultivator will do excellent work, 
not only in the field, but in the road-ways and other un- 
cultivated places, where the eggs may be laid. The more 
the soil is pulverized, after being broken up, the better. 

COLLECTING THE EGGS. 

The eggs are sometimes placed where neither harrowing 
nor plowing can be employed. In such cases, they should 
be collected and destroyed by the inhabitants, and the 
State should offer some inducement in the way of bounty 
for such collection and destruction. Every bushel of eggs 
destroyed is equivalent to a hundred acres of corn saved, 
and when we consider the amount of destruction caused 
by the young, and that the ground is often known to be 
filled with eggs ; that, in other words, the earth is sown 
with the seeds of future destruction, it is surprising that 
such bounty laws have not been more generally enacted. 
A few thousand dollars taken out of the State treasury 
for this purpose would be well spent, and be distributed 
among the very people most in need of assistance. 

PLOWING. 

Plowing the eggs under deeply, destroys them either en- 
tirely or in great part, and if some survive, the young hatch 
so late the next season, that their power for harm is much 
lessened. Care should be taken not to bring the eggs 
turned under in autumn to the surface again, by plowing 



154 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

the same land the following spring ; for, thns brought ta 
the surface, the eggs more often hatch. 

The experience as to deep plowing under of the eggs is 
somewhat conflicting, and in some light, dry soils, a good 
number of them will hatch late if turned under a foot ; yet, 
from my own observations, and a vast amount of experi- 
ence gathered together, I recommend it as profitable. If 
delayed till spring, it should be done just as the young 
begin to hatch, as it is then most effectual. The plowing 
will be effectual according as the soil is porous or tenacious, 
and according us the surface is aftericard compressed by 
harrowing and rolling. From the experiments already 
recorded, it is obvious that, all other things being equal, 
a plowing of four to six inches will prove more effectual 
in spring, if the ground be subsequently harrowed and 
rolled, than deeper plowing with no subsequent comminu- 
tion and compression. 

IRRIGATION TRAMPING. 

Where the ground is light and porous, excessive and 
continued moisture will cause most of the eggs to perish ; 
and irrigation, or alternate submersion and drying of such 
land, will likewise prove beneficial. It is less useful, how- 
ever, than is generally supposed, and on tenacious soils 
will have little effect. 

Wherever hogs or cattle can be turned into the fields 
where the eggs abound, most of these will be destroyed 
by the rooting and tramping. All these means are obvi- 
ously insufficient, however, for the reason that the eggs 
are too often placed where none of them can be employed. 

In such cases, they should be collected and destroyed by 
the inhabitants, and the bounty laws, presently to be con- 
sidered, are useful in this connection. 



Practical Considerations. 155 

DESTKUCTION OF THE YOUNG OR UNFLEDGED LOCUSTS. 

Next to the destruction of the eggs, the destruction of 
the young or unfledged locusts is most within man's 
power. The means of accomplishing this result necessarily 
vary somewhat with the nature of the soil and of the 
crops. For convenience, they may be classified into : 
1, burning; 2, crushing; 3, trapping; 4, catching; 5, the 
icse of destructive agents. 

1. ^timing. — In a prairie and wheat-growing country, 
like much of that which this locust devastates, and where 
there is always an abundance of old straw, burning is per- 
haps the best means of warfare against the young. These, 
for some time after they hatch, may be driven into wind- 
rows or heaps of straw scattered around and through a 
field, and burned. During cold, damp weather, they will, 
of their own accord, congregate under such shelter, and 
may sometimes be exterminated by burning, where no 
driving is necessary. As to burning the praii-ie in the 
spring, while there is much to be said ^j»ro and con, it is, 
all things considered, beneficial in this connection. 
Scarcely any eggs are laid in rank prairie, and the impres- 
sion that locusts are slaughtered by myriads in burning 
extensive areas, is a false one. This practice is beneficial 
principally around cultivated fields and roadsides, from 
which the locusts may be driven, or from which they will 
of themselves pass for the shelter the prairie affords. 

The burning of extensive prairies, after the bulk of the 
locusts hatch, destroys the nests and eggs of some game 
birds which feed upon the locusts, but the birds themselves 
always escape and nest again ; whereas many noxious in- 
sects, like the chinch bug, are killed ; so that, even leaving 
the locust question out of consideration, the burning would 
yet prove advantageous to man. 



156 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

It is beneficial in proportion as it is delayed, because the 
locusts, as they develop, disperse more and more from 
their hatching grounds into the prairie. 

In Colorado, machines for burning have been used to 
good advantage. Mr. J. Hetzel, of Longmont, uses a 
burner drawn by horses. It is twelve feet long, two to 
two and one-half feet wide, made of iron, and set on run- 
ners four inches high. An open grate on the top of the run- 
ners is filled with pitch-pine wood, and a metal sheet covers 
the grate to keep the heat down. The grate is generally 
made with a network of heavy wire, such as telegraph- 
wire. Two men and a team will burn ten to twelve acres 
a day, and kill two-thirds of the insects, but it requires a 
hot fire. Mr. C. C. Horner gives, in the Colorado Farmer, 
the following more detailed description of a machine 
which works on the same principle : 

It consists of three runners made of 2 x 4 scantling three feet in 
length, to be placed six feet apart, making the machine twelve feet 
wide ; runners to be bound together by three flat straps or bars of 
iron (the base being twelve feet long.) Across the top, bars of iron 
hold the runners firmly together, and form a frame across which 
wire can be worked, to make a grate to hold fire. The upper part 
of the runners should be hollowed out so that the grate may slide 
along within two inches of the ground. A sheet-iron arch should 
be set over this grate to drive the heat downward. This machine 
is very light, and can be worked with one horse. Pitch-wood is 
best adapted to burning, and can be chopped the right length and 
size and left in piles where most convenient when needed. This 
machine is intended to be used when the httle hoppers just make 
their appearance along the edge of the grain, going over the 
ground once or twice each day, or as often as necessary to keep 
them killed off. The scorching does not kill the grain, but makes 
it a few days later. This is certainly the cheapest as well as the 
most effectual manner of getting rid of this pest. 

A hand burner, consisting of any form of pan or grate, 
to hold combustible material, and attached to a handle, 
will do excellent service in gardens and small enclosures. 

Long wire or iron rods, wrapped in rags saturated with 



Practical Considerations. 157 

kerosene, and then ignited and carried over a field, near 
the ground, will slaughter large numbers. 

2. Crushing. — This can be resorted to with advantage 
only in exceptional cases, where the ground is smooth and 
hard. Heavy rolling, where the surface of the soil is 
sufficiently firm and even, destroys a large number of 
the newly-hatched young, but is most advantageously 
employed when they are most sluggish and inclined to 
huddle together, as during the first eight or ten days after 
hatching, and in the mornings and evenings subsequently. 
In many parts of Europe and Asia, flat, wooden, spade- 
like implements are extensively used for this purpose. 

3. Trapping. — This is very effectual, especially when 
the insects are making their way into a field from roads 
and hedge-sides. The use of nets or seines, or converging 
strips of calico or any other material, made after the plan 
of a quail-net, has proved most satisfactory. By digging 
a pit, or boring a post-auger hole three or four feet deep, 
and then staking the two wings so that they converge to- 
ward it, large numbers of the locusts may be driven into 
the pit after the dew is off the ground, or may be headed 
off when marching in a given direction. By changing the 
position of this trap, much good can be done when the 
insects are yet small and concentrated in particular spots. 

Ditching or trenching will come under this head ; and 
after the insects have commenced to travel in schools, 
proper ditching is the most effectual protection to crops. 
This is especially true where, as was the case in much of 
the ravaged country in 1875, thei-e is little or no hay or 
straw to burn ; or when the crops have grown to such a size 
as prevents the use of some of the destructive agents men- 
tioned further on. A ditch two feet wide and two feet 
deep, with perpendicular sides, offers an effectual barrier 
to the young insects. It must, however, be kept in proper 



158 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

order, so that the side next the field to be protected is 
not allowed to wash out or become too hard. It may be 
kept friable by brush or rake. They tumble into such a 
ditch and accumulate, and die at the bottom in large quan- 
tities. In a few days the stench becomes great, and neces- 
sitates the covering up of the mass. In order to keep the 
main ditch open, therefore, it is best to dig pits or deeper 
side ditches at short intervals, in which the hoppers will 
accumulate and may be buried. If a trench is made around 
a field about hatching time, but few hoppers will get into 
that field till they acquire wings, and by that time the 
principal danger is over, and the insects are fast disap- 
pearing. If any should hatch within the inclosure, they 
are easily driven into the ditches dug in diflerent parts of 
the field. The direction of the apprehended approach of 
the insects being known from their hatching locality, 
ditching one or two sides next to such locality is generally 
sufticient, and when farmers join they can construct a long 
ditch which will protect many farms. 

I have not a doubt but that with proper and systematic 
ditching early in the season, when the insects first hatch, 
nearly everything can be saved. 

Just behind the fair-grounds at Kansas City, Mo., there 
is an intelligent and industrious gardener, Mr. F. D. Ad- 
kins, who, in 1875, had about three acres in vegetables. 
The locusts hatched in large numbers all around Kansas 
City, and nowhere more abundantly than in the imme- 
diate vicinity of this truck-garden. Mr. Adkins, remem- 
bering his experience with the same plague in 1867, perse- 
vered in ditching for their destruction in 1875; and though 
the surface of the country for miles and miles around was 
desolate, yet this little three-acre field was untouched — a 
perfect oasis in the desert, at once giving pleasure to the 
eye, and speaking eloquently of what may be accomplished 



Practical Considerations. 159 

by a little tact and perseverance. Numerous other instances 
of this kind might be given. I have seen people driving off 
the young locusts day after day, in their endeavors to save 
some small vegetable or flower garden — their efforts 
eventually in vain — where one-tenth the time spent in 
ditching would have effectually accomplished the object. 
And when I should, perhaps, have been praying, I have 
witnessed sights that prompted to thought and word the 
very reverse of prayer. In a large portion of Johnson 
county, Mo., the injury in 1875 was slight, and until the 
end of May little damage was done around Warrensburg, 
Happening to be in the vicinity of this town on the 3d of 
June, I came upon a beautiful vineyard which had up to 
that time escaped. The insects had got into it, and the 
owner was advised to ditch to save it. His piety exceeded 
his good sense, however, and instead of genuflecting on a 
spade he was performing the operation in another way, 
while his beautiful vineyard was being destroyed at so 
speedy a rate that it would not show a green leaf by the 
morrow. I respect every man's faith, but there are in- 
stances where I would respect his work a good deal more. 

Where the soil is tenacious, and water can be let into 
the ditches so as to cover the bottom, they may be made 
shallower, and still be effective. Mr. Frank Holsinger, of 
Kansas City, under date of May 23rd, 1875, sent me the 
following account of his experience; 

Your very interesting communication to the St. Louis Qlohe was 
reproduced in our Journalof Commerce on the 21st iust. I have no 
doubt hut tliat your counsel will be heeded by many, but to the 
mass of our people it is as " sounding brass," etc. During the past 
four days I have been at worlt, and although I spent less than one- 
fourth of my time to the purpose,! have destroyed between thirty and 
forty bushels of wingless locusts. My remedy is so simple I con- 
cluded to give it to you, as I think it better than any I have j'et 
seen, and had I known how easy it was to accomplish I would 
now see growing crops where ruin and desolation appear. 

As they had entered my wheat (I took your advice and fall- 



160 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

plowed everything, and I do not think there was a hatful hatched 
on my forty acres) from neighboring farms, and knowing that wlien 
they got through they must move in force on my garden, I cautioned 
my wife to inform me when they commenced on this last. On the 
18th inst., at 11 a. M. , she gave the watch-word, " they come;" so, 
leaving corn-plowing, I hastened to surround our garden with a 
board fence, intending to drive the insects around, but to no pur- 
pose, although the boards were placed at 45° outward, and some six 
of us were at work. Still they came. We built straw $res next — 
still unsatisfactory. I had been underdraining, and had some drains 
still open. Wife said, '' you will work yourself sick, and all to no 
purpose." I took a look, and a patch of early potatoes, one-third 
of an acre, which we had saved, was melting before them. I then 
saw them march straight for the drain. My impulse then was to 
burn them in the drain. This I found difficult. The next thought 
was "pit-falls at intervals in the drain." I commenced digging 
these, and the locusts tumbled in by thousands, but many escaped. 
Now the thought occurred that if there was water in the pits they 
could not jump; so water was thrown in, and the result was a suc- 
cess. I feel certain that by a judicious expenditure of $50, in ditch- 
ing around my thirty-five acres, I could have saved everything, 
while my loss is lai'gely in excess of $1,000. 

The width and depth of the ditch is important, and as ex- 
perience differed somewhat I have been at pains to get the 
experience of a large number of correspondents addressed 
by circular. Many have successfully used ditches two feet 
deep and eighteen inches wide; a few have made them only 
1 8 in. X 1 8 in. ; those who have used water found 1 2 in. x 1 5 in. 
sufficient, while the larger number used a ditch such as I have 
recommended, viz., two feet deep by two feet wide, with per- 
pendicular sides. Having been the first to recommend 
proper ditching in this country, I have felt particular inter- 
est in its results, and have been in no small degree amused at 
the fault found with my recommendation, by those who, 
through slovenly-made ditches or other causes, have not 
been successful in this mode of warfare. It is less effectual 
against the newly-hatched young, which more easily crawl 
up a perpendicular bank than the larger ones, and its effi- 
cacy will vary with the nature of the soil and other cir- 
cumstances ; for, in proportion as the soil is loose, and 
ditches hence apt to fill up by the action of strong winds, 



Practical Considerations. 161 



or in proportion as strong winds carry the insects over, 
ditching will necessarily fail. 

Those who, from theory rather than from experience, are 
skeptical about the efficacy of ditching, urge that the lo- 
cust, especially in the pupa state, can hop more than two 
feet. In truth, however, whether when traveling in a 
given direction of their own accord, or when being driven 
or disturbed, they very seldom leap that distance, as all who 
have had experience well know. That, on a pinch, the 
pupa can leap even farther, is true ; but the fact remains 
that in practice, Caloptenus spretus seldom does. So the 
chinch bug, though capable of flight, will yet tumble into 
a ditch by myriads rather than use its wings. Even the 
larger winged Acridia and CEdipodce tumble into such a 
ditch, and seldom get out again. I would remark in this 
connection, also, that a ditch three feet wide, unless cor- 
respondingly deep, will be more apt to permit the insects 
to escape, when once in, than a narrower one. In hopping, 
the more perpendicular the direction the insects must take, 
the shorter will be the distance reached. 

The efficacy of the ditch depends not so much on the 
inability of the young locusts to jump or scale it, as on 
their tendency not to do so. In the bottom of the ditch 
they soon become demoralized, crippled and enfeebled, by 
constant efibrt, and the trampling and crowding upon one 
another. 

4. Catching. — There are innumerable mechanical con- 
trivances for this purpose. The cheapest and most 
satisfactory are those intended to bag the insects. A 
frame two feet high and of varying length, according as it 
is to be drawn by men or horses, with a bag of sheeting 
tapering behind and ending in a small bag or tube, say one 
foot in diameter and two or three feet long, with a fine 
wire door at the end to admit the light and permit the 
11 



162 The Roclcy Mountain Locust. 

dumi^ing of the insects, will do admirable work. The 
insects gravitate toward the wire screen, and when the 
secondary bag is full they may be emptied into a pit dug 
for the purpose. These bagging-machines will prove most 
serviceable when grain is too high for the kerosene pans, 
presently to be described, and they will be rendered more 
effectual by having runners at distances of about every 
two feet extending a foot or so in front of the mouth, so 
as to more thoroughly disturb the insects and prevent them 
from getting underneath; also by being drawn by wings of 
vertical teeth so as to increase the scope with as little 
resistance to the wind as possible. 

Hand nets, such as are used by entomologists, and which 
[Fig. 34.] are easily made as 

shown in accompany- 
/^ N. ing figure, will do good 
( ) service in gardens. 

A curious suction- 
fanning machine has 
been invented by Mr. 
a ^ ^ '' J. C» King, of Boulder, 

Hand Net ;-a, complete, b, hollow handle: c, Q -^ ^^^ ^ T^^ 
Dent iiame. ' J 

tioned in this connection. A strong draft sucks the insects 
up through an elongate mouth with lips that run near the 
ground, and draws them up through two funnels and knocks 
them to pieces. I have seen the working of such a machine 
in Mr. T. Co Henry's possession at Abilene, Kan. It is an 
admirable invention, and may be improved so as to be of 
great service ; but on account of its expense will scarcely 
compete with the more simple methods. 

5. Use of destructive agents. — Kerosene is the most 
effective. It may be used in any of its cruder forms. In 
Colorado they use it to good advantage on the water in 
their irrigating-ditches, and it may be used anywhere in 




H 



Practical Considerations. 



163 



pans or in saturated cloths, stretched on frames, drawn 
over a field. A good and cheap pan is made of ordinary 
sheet-iron, eight feet long, eleven inches wide at the 
bottom, and turned up a foot high at the back and an inch 
high at the front. A runner at each end, extending some 
distance behind, and a cord attached to each front corner, 
complete the pan, at a cost of about ll.oO. 



[Fig. 35.] 




Small Coal-oil Pan. 

I have known from seven to ten bushels of young locusts 
caught with one such pan in an afternoon. It is easily 
pulled by two boys, and by running several together in a 
row, one boy to each outer rope and one to each contiguous 
pair, the best work is performed with the least labor. Heav- 
ier or longer pans, to be drawn by horses, should have 
transverse partitions to avoid spilling the liquid ; also more 
runners. The oil maybe used alone so as to just cover the 
bottom, or on the surface of water, and the insects strained 
through a wire ladle. When the insects are very small, 
one may economize in kerosene by lining the pan with 
saturated cloth ; but this becomes less efficient afterwards, 
and frames of cloth saturated with oil do not equal the pans. 



164 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

Where oil has been scarce, some persons have substituted 
concentrated lye, but when used strong enough to kill, it 
costs about as much as the oil. The oil-pans can be used 
only when the crops to be protected are small. 

Small pans for oil, attached to an obliquing pole or 
handle, do excellent service in gardens. 



Large Coal-oil Pan. 

Coal tar may also be used to good advantage in similar 
pans, either drawn or pushed by man or horse. 

Mr. Rufus Clark, of Denver, uses apiece of oil cloth, nine 
to tAvelve feet long, and six feet wide ; one side and each 
end are secured to light wooden strips by common carpet 
tacks, and the corners strengthened by braces. 

" The oil cloth is smeared with coal tar, purchased at the 
Denver Gas Works for $7.50 per barrel, and the trap is 
dragged over the ground by two men — a cord about ten 
feet long being fastened to the front corners for that purpose. 
The entire expense of the " trap " is about $3.50, and as it 
is light and easily handled, will be found serviceable on 
small as well as large farms." 

Zinc instead of oil cloth has also been used for the same 
purpose. 

The experience of 1875 showed that when the insects 



Practical Considerations. 165 



are famishing, it is useless to try and protect plants by 
any application whatever. Sweetened water, which was 
supposed to be eifective, certainly has no such eiFect on the 
unfledged hoppers, for they " went for " plants which I 
thus sprinkled even more voraciously than for those not 
sprinkled. Lime does not deter them ; cresylic soap will 
not keep them from eating ; and Paris green, though it 
undoubtedly kills those which partake, is yet no protection 
to plants, because those which go ofl" to die somewhere 
after partaking are continuously followed by others which 
go through the same experience. I gave carbonic acid gas, 
from a Babcock fire extinguisher, a thorough trial under 
many different circumstances and conditions, but without 
any satisfactory results. It had very little effect upon 
them even when played upon them continuously and at 
short distance. They often became numbed by the force 
of the liquid but invariably rallied again. 

A mixture of kerosene and warm water, applied through 
an atomizer or spraying machine, is, perhaps, the best pro- 
tection, and will measurably keep the insects off when they 
are not too numerous. 

Paris green, mixed with flour, in proportion of one part 
of green to twenty-five or thirty parts of the dilutent, if 
scattered on the ground, will attract quite a number of the 
msects, which will eat thereof and die. This mixture has 
long been known to kill the Colorado Potato-beetle. Its 
use against the young locusts is, however, practically of 
little avail, first on account of their numbers, secondly on 
account of the danger incident to the use of so poisonous a 
remedy. 

PKOTECTION OF FRUIT TREES. 

The best means of protecting fruit and shade trees de- 
serves separate consideration. Where the trunk is smooth 



166 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



and perpendicular, they may be protected by whitewash- 
ing. The lime crumbles under the feet of the insects as 
they attempt to climb, and prevents their getting up. By 
their persistent efforts, however, they gradually tear off 
the lime and reach a higher point each day, so that the 
whitewashing must be often repeated. Trees with short, 
rough trunks, or which lean, are not very well protected 
in this way. A strip of smooth, bright tin answers even 
better for the same purpose. Encircling the tree in any 
of the different ways employed for preventing the ascen- 
sion of the female Canker Worm, puts an effectual estop- 
pel on the operations of the young locusts above the point 
of attachment, for they can not jump from and alight again 
on the same perpendicular surface. A strip of tin three or 
four inches wide, brought around and tacked to a smooth 
tree, will protect it ; while oil rougher trees a piece of old 
rope may first be tacked around the tree, and the tin 
tacked to it so as to leave a portion both above and below. 
Passages between the tin and the rope, or the rope and 
tree, can then be blocked by filling the upper area be- 
tween tin and tree with earth. The tin must be high 
enough from the ground to prevent the hoppers from 
jumping from the latter beyond it ; and the trunk below 
the tin, where the insects collect, should be covered with 
coal tar or some poisonous substance, to prevent girdling. 
This is more especially necessary with small trees. 

One of the cheapest and simplest modes is to encircle 
the tree with cotton batting, in which the insects will en- 
tangle their feet, and thus be more or less obstructed. 
Strips of paper covered with tar, stiff paper tied on so as to 
slope roof-fashion, strips of glazed wall-paper, and thick 
coatings of soft soap, have been used with varying success, 
but no estoppel equals the bright tin. The others require 
constant watching and renewal, and in all cases coming 



Practical Considerations. 167 



under my observation, some insects would get into the 
trees, so as to require the daily shaking of these, morning 
and evening. This will sometimes have to be done, when 
the bulk of the insects have become fledged, even where 
tin is used, for a certain proportion of the insects will then 
fly into the trees. They do most damage during the night, 
and care should be had that the trees be unloaded of their 
voracious freight just before dark. 

Most cultivated plants may be measurably protected 
from the ravages of these young by good cultivation and a 
constant stirring of the soil. The young have an antipa- 
thy to a loose and friable surface, which incommodes them 
and hinders their progress, and they will often leave such 
a surface for one more hard and firm. 

Finally, though insisting on ditching and the digging of 
pits as, all things considered, the best and most reliable 
insurance against the ravages of the young locusts, I would 
urge our farmers not to rely on these means alone, but to 
employ all the other means recommended, according as 
convenience and opportunity suggest. 

One of my correspondents, Capt. John R. Wherry, of 
Boonville, Mo., has suggested the use of strips of canvas, 
dipped in liquid sulphur and attached to stakes to be stuck 
in the ground. He thinks that if the strips are lit at even- 
ing the fumes will drive the insects away from the locality 
they pervade. The suggestion strikes me quite favorably 
as a means of protecting orchards, and I would recommend 
its trial. The strips should be dipped in hot sulphur, 
allowed to cool, and then staked to the windward of the 
orchard, if the wind is stirring. 

DESTRUCTION OF THE WINGED INSECTS. 

The complete destruction of the winged insects, when 
they swoop down upon a country in prodigous swarms, is 



168 TTie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

imijossible. Man is powerless before the mighty host. 
Special plants, or small tracts of vegetation may be saved 
by perseveringly driving the insects off, or keeping them 
off by means of smudges, as the locusts avoid smoke; or 
by rattling or tinkling noises constantly kept up. Long 
ropes perseveringly dragged over a grain field, have been 
used to good advantage. Great numbers may be caught 
and destroyed by bagging and crushing, as recommended 
for the new-fledged ; and I would more particularly urge 
their destruction in this way late in the season, Avhen, 
early and late in the day, they are comparatively sluggish: 
but as a rule, the vast swarms from the West or Northwest 
will have everything their own way. In the latitude of 
St. Louis, these invading swarms usually come too late to 
affect the small grains, or to materially affect corn ; but 
farther north they are more to be dreaded, and the ex- 
perience of Minnesota and Dakota farmers teaches that 
one of the best ways of avoiding their injuries is to grow 
such crops as will mature early. 

Mr. S. T. Kelsey succeeded in saving many of his yoimg 
forest trees in Kansas, in 1874, by perseveringly smudging 
and smoking them. 

He gives his experience in the following words, in the 
Kansas Farmer^ Aug. 26, 1874 : 

At first we tried building fires on the ground, but it was not suc- 
cessful. The smoke would not go where we wanted it to. We then 
tried taking a bunch of hay and, holding it between sticks, would 
fire it, and then, passing tnrough the field on the windward side, 
would hold it so that the smoke would strike the grasshoppers. We 
would soon have a cloud of hoppers on the wing, and by following 
It up would, in a short time, clear the field. We have thus far 
saved everything that was not destroyed wlien we commenced figlit- 
ing them ; and while I do not give this as an infallible remedy, not 
having tried it sufficiently, yet it does seem to me, from what I 
have seen of it, that one good active man who would attend right 
to it, could protect a twenty-acre field or a large orchard. But to be 
successful, one must attend right to the business. 



Practical Considerations. 169 



PREYENTIVK MEASURES. 

The measures so far recommended have in view the de- 
struction of the insects when once they are upon us. The 
question very naturally arises, "Can not something be 
done to prevent the incursions of the species into the 
more fertile States in which it is not indigenous ? " 

The most important results are likely to flow from a 
thorough study of the Rocky Mountain Locust in its 
native haunts and breeding places, such as the U. S. En- 
tomological Commission is now engaged in. By learning 
just when and how to strike the insect, so as to prevent, 
if possible, its undue multiplication there — whether by 
some more extensive system of irrigation, based on im- 
proved knowledge of the topography and water supply 
of the country, or by other means of destroying the eggs 
— we may hope to protect the fertile States to the East 
from future calamity. 

One of the best means of checking the increase of the 
species in its native haunts, will be found in the encourage- 
ment and increase of its natural enemies, especially the 
game birds. The introduction of the English sparrow has 
been recommended. From what I know of the bird, both 
here and in its native country, I should expect little aid 
from it in this line, and if it can thrive to the Northwest, 
it will soon spread there, as it is rapidly multiplying at 
several points along the Mississippi. We may expect 
more good from the encouragement of native locust-feed- 
ing species. Prof. Thomas has suggested that induce- 
ments be offered to the Indians to collect and destroy the 
eggs and young along the west side of the plains. Some 
system of preventing the extensive prairie fires in fall that 
are common in the country where the insect naturally 
breeds, and then subsequently firing the country in the 



lYO Tlie Rocky Mountain Locnst. 

spring, after the young hatch, and before the new grass 
gets too rank, might also be adopted. But whatever the 
means employed, they must be carried on systematically, 
and on a sufficiently extended and comprehensive scale. 

SUGGESTIONS THAT MAY BE OF SERVICE. 

In addition to the foregoing remedial and preventive 
measures to be taken in dealing with locusts, a few other 
suggestions occur, which may be of advantage. The 
plants that can be grown, which are unmolested by the 
pests, and which will not, in all likelihood, suiFer, have 
already been enumerated. Those which are cultivated 
are principally peas and other leguminous species, castor 
beans, sorghum, broom-corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, 
etc. The locusts, as already stated, are particularly fond 
of tansy, cocklebur, and Amarantus : these weeds, where 
abundant, might be periodically sprinkled with Paris 
Green water or powder, so as to kill large numbers of the 
young insects. These last will also congregate on timothy 
in preference to other grasses or grain, and a strip of 
timothy around a corn or wheat-field, to be poisoned in 
the same way, might save the latter. It is also currently 
supposed that the common larkspur {I)elphinixm%) is 
poisonous to these insects, but how much truth there is in 
the statement I am unable to tell. In going through an 
oat-field, the winged insects drop a great deal of the grain, 
which, when ripe enough, might at once be harrowed in 
so as to furnish a good growth of fodder that can be cut 
and cured for winter use. The lesson of 1S73 and 1874 
should also not go unheeded. The former year was one 
of plenty, and corn was so cheap and abundant that it 
was burned for fuel in many sections where, in 1874, there 
were empty cribs, and the farmers wished they had been 
more provident. 



Practical Considerations. 171 



Nothing, however, will so surely insure those States 
subject to them, against the ravages of this insect, as irri- 
gation. With water at command, the farmer in all this 
locust area is measurably master of his two greatest insect 
plagues, the Chinch bug and the Locust, and full master of 
the young locusts, either by inundating the land and 
drowning them out after hatching, or by using kerosene 
in the ditches ; and if there were no other reasons to be 
urged in its favor, these are sufficient to warrant those 
States included in said area in using all means in their 
power in having schemes for irrigation perfected and 
carried out, so far as the topography, soil, and other pecu- 
liarities of the country will admit. 

Hogs and poultry of every description delight tft feed 
on the young hoppers, and will flourish where these 
abound, when nothing else does. It will be well, in the 
event of a future invasion, for the people in the invaded 
districts to provide themselves with as large a quantity as 
possible of this stock. Where no general and systematic 
efforts have been made to destroy either the eggs or the 
young locusts, and it is found that, as spring opens, these 
young hatch out in threatening numbers, the intelligent 
farmer will delay the planting of everything that can not 
be jirotected by ditching, until the very last moment, or 
till toward the end of June — using his team and time 
solely in the preparation of his land. In this way not 
only will he save his seed and the labor of planting, and, 
perhaps, rej^lanting, but he will materially assist in weak- 
ening the devouring armies. Men planted in IS'ZS, and 
worked with a will and energy born of necessity, only to 
see their crojjs finally taken, their seed gone, and their 
teams and themselves worn out. The locusts ultimately 
destroyed every green thing, until, finding nothing more, 
they began to fall upon each other and to perish. This 



172 Tlie Rocky 3Ioiuitam Locust. 



critical period in their history would have been brought 
about much earlier if they had not had the cultivated 
crops to feed upon ; and if, by concert of action, this sys- 
tem of non-planting could at first have been adopted over 
large areas, the insects would have been much sooner 
starved out and obliged to congregate in the pastures, 
prairies and timber. Moreover, the time required for early 
planting and cultivation, if devoted to destroying the in- 
sects after the bulk of them hatch out, toward the end 
of April, would virtually annihilate them. The multipli- 
cation of any species of animal beyond the power of the 
country to support it, inevitably proves the destruction of 
that species, unless it is able to migrate. Let fifty batches 
of caiiker-worm eggs hatch out on a single, somewhat 
isolated apple tree, and not one worm will survive long 
enough to mature. The leaves of the tree will be de- 
voured before the worms are half grown, and the latter 
must then inevitably perish ; whereas, if only a dozen 
batches of eggs had hatched on that tree, the worms 
might all have lived and matured. In the same way, the 
young locusts inevitably perish whenever they are so nu- 
merous as to devour every green thing before they become 
fledged ; and in certain circumstances, the sooner such a 
condition of things is brought about, the better. The 
greatest generals and the mightiest armies must yield to 
starvation. 

Grain might also be sown in " lands " or strips, fifty to 
one hundred feet wide, to permit of ditching between 
them, and those who have fall wheat up and doing well, 
where the eggs are thickly laid, should make ditches at 
intervals through the field, to facilitate the saving of the 
grain in the spring. 

In this connection it is also very obvious that our Sig- 
nal Service might be made the means of giving important 



Practical Considerations. 173 



assistance to the farmers of the "West, by warning them 
of coming danger. If, as I believe, the disastrous swarms 
which reach the southeastern country come from the ex- 
treme Northwest, there is no reason why, by increasing 
the number of signal stations in that region, the move- 
ments of large swarms should not be daily recorded, and 
the farmers to the East and Southeast be apprised of their 
probable coming for weeks in advance. The people might 
not, it is true, greatly benefit by the information, except 
in preparing and providing for the possible contingency ; 
but by thus recording the movements of swarms, we shall 
in a few years come to know more about the native breed- 
ing places and habits of the species, and as the Bureau 
perfects its work, we may, through it, learn the fall before, 
when the insects have become unduly multiplied, or have 
laid enormous quantities of eggs, over large areas in their 
native habitat, and when, in consequence, an invasion the 
following year is probable ; in which event a larger pro- 
portion of small grains and other crops that escape the 
ravages of the fall swarms, can be planted in the threat- 
ened country. 

As to the best means of disposing of the slaughtered lo- 
custs, the easiest and most generally employed are burning 
and burying. Yet the insects might be turned to good 
advantage as manure, or sun-dried and preserved in cakes 
to feed to hogs, poultry, etc., and where large quantities 
are destroyed under a bounty system, some such means 
of making the most of them should be considered. 

As a means of assisting farmers i^n the destruction of the 
unfledged locusts by trenches and in other ways, I would 
also urge the employment of the military, a large force of 
whom, in times of peace, could be oi'dered to the field at 
short notice. As I have elsewhere remarket! :* "To many, the 

• Proc. Am Ass. Adv. Sc, 1875. B. 219. 



174 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

idea of emj^loying soldiers to assist the agriculturist in bat- 
tling with this pest, may seem farcical enough, but though 
the men might not find glory in the fight, the war — unlike 
most other wars — would be fraught only with good conse- 
quences to mankind. In Algeria the custom prevails of send- 
ing the soldiers against these insects. While in the south 
of France last summer [1875], I found to my great satisfac- 
tion, that at Aries, Bouche du Rhone, where the unfledged 
locusts {Caloptenus Itcdicus, a species closely allied to our 
Rocky Mountain Locust), were doing great harm, the 
soldiers had been sent in force to do battle with them, and 
were then and there waging a vigorous war against the tiny 
foe." A few regiments, armed with no more deadly 
weapons than the common spade, sent out to sections of 
country that are sufiering from locust ravages, might in a 
few weeks measurably rout the pygmean army, and 
materially assist the farmer in his ditching operations. 

DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE. 

Finally, much can be done to avert the evil we are con- 
sidering by a judicious choice of crops. There is nothing 
surer than that the destitution in Western Missouri and 
Eastern Kansas, in 1874-a, was fully as much owing 
to the previous ravages of the Chinch bug as to those 
of this locust. The Chinch bug is an annual and increas- 
ing trouble ; the locust only a periodical one. Now, the 
regions indicated, agriculturally, are the richest in those 
two States, and, for that matter, can scarcely be surpassed 
in the entire country. Consisting of high, rolling prairie, 
interspersed, as a rule, with an abundance of good timber, 
this area produces a very large amount of corn and stock. 
Of cultivated crops, corn is the staple, and, with a most 
generous soil, it has become the fashion to plant and culti- 
vate little else, year after year, on the same ground. The 



Practical Considerations. 175 

corn fields alternate more or less with pastures, and 
there is just enough small grain to breed and nourish the 
first brood of chinch bugs which pass into the corn at 
harvest time and which scatter over the country, by breed- 
ing and harboring in the corn fields. Not to mention the 
different means to be employed in counteracting the ravages 
of this insect, a diversified agriculture is undoubtedly one 
of the most effectual. It must necessarily follow that the 
more extensively any given crop is cultivated to the exclu- 
sion of other crops the more will the peculiar insects which 
depredate upon it become unduly and injuriously abundant. 
The Chinch bug is confined in its depredations to the 
grasses and cereals. Alternate your timothy, wheat, barley, 
corn, etc., upon which it flourishes, with any of the numer- 
ous crops on which it can not flourish, and you very 
materially affect its power for harm. A crop of corn or 
wheat grown on a piece of land entirely free from chinch 
bugs will not suffer to the same extent as a crop grown on 
land where the insects have been breeding and harboring. 
This fact is becoming partially recognized, and already 
hemp, flax and castor beans are to some extent cultivated 
in the States mentioned. But there are many other 
valuable root and forage plants that may yet be introduced 
and grown as field crops. 

Of root crops that would escape the ravages of the 
winged locusts, and which would grow in ordinary seasons, 
and furnish excellent food for stock, may be mentioned 
turnips, ruta bagas, mangel wurzel, carrots (especially the 
large Belgian), parsnips and beets. Of tubers that are not 
so profitable but of which it would be well to plant small 
quantities in locust districts, for the reason, as my friend 
A. S. Fuller, of New York, suggests, that they grow with 
such ease, and are less likely to be injured by the insects, 
the Chinese Yam, Jerusalem Artichoke {Helianthus tube- 



376 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

rostcs), and the Chufa {Cyjyerus esculentus) are worthy of 
trial. Turnips, of which the insects are especially fond, 
kohlrabi, carrots, and the like, may be saved when they 
come late, by cutting off the tops and covering the roots 
with earth — the tops making excellent food for milch cows. 
The earth should be removed again as soon as possible to 
prevent the rotting of the roots. 

LEGISLATION. 

Too much stress can not be laid on the advantage of ct>- 
operation and concert of action, and legislation both to 
induce and to oblige action is important. In every com- 
munity there are those who persist in doing nothing to 
prevent locust injury. These indifferents frequently bring 
ruin not only upon themselves, but upon more persevering 
neighbors, and any law will prove beneficial that will 
oblige every able-bodied man to work one or more days, 
either in the fall in destroying the eggs, or in the spring in 
killing the young insects, whenever the township trustees, 
at the request of a given number of citizens of the town- 
ship, may call them to such work under special provisions 
similar to those of existing road- laws. 

It is a gratifying indication of the increasing apprecia- 
tion of economic entomology that, while three years ago 
the mere suggestion to enact laws for the suppression of 
injurious insects would have been, and was, received by 
our legislators with ridicule ; yet, during the winter of 
1876-7, several States have seen fit to pass acts that have 
for object the destruction of this locust, or the relief of the 
suftering and destitution it so often entails — not to men- 
tion the appropriation made by Congress for a special 
investigation. The following are the State laws that have 
been passed : 



Practical Considerations. Ill 



MISSOURI. — An Act to ekcoukage the destkuction ok 

GRASSHOPPERS. 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as 
follows • 

Section 1. Any person who shall gather, or cause to be gathered 
by any person in his employ, eggs of the Rocky Mountain locust or 
grasshopper, at any time after they are deposited in the earth in the 
autumn of any year, and before they are hatched the followiug 
spring, shall be entitled to a bounty of five dollars for each and 
every bushel of eggs thus gathered, or for any quantity less than 
one bushel, bounty at the same rate, to be paid, one-half by the 
State and one-half by the county in which they are gathered. 

Sec. 2. Any person who shall gather, collect and kill, or cause 
to be so collected and killed, young and unfledged grasshoppers in 
the month of March, shall be entitled to a bounty of one dollar for 
each bushel, and for the month of April, fifty cents per bushel, and 
for the month of May, twenty-five cents per bushel, to be paid in 
the same manner as in the preceding section. 

Sec. 3. Any person claiming bounty under this act, shall pro- 
duce the eggs and grasshoppers thus gathered or killed, as the case 
may be, before the clerk of the county court in which such eggs or 
grasshoppers were gathered or killed, within ten days thereafter, 
whereupon said clerk shall administer to such person the following 
oath or affirmation: You do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case 
may be,) that the eggs (or grasshoppers, as the case may be,) pro- 
duced by you, were taken and gathered by you, or by person 
or persons in your employ, or under j'our control, and within this 
county and State. 

Sec. 4. Tlie clerk shall forthwith destroy said eggs by burning 
the same and give to the person proving up the same under his hand 
and seal, a certificate setting forth in a plain handwriting, without 
interlineation, the amount of eggs or grasshoppers procluced and 
destroj'ed by him, and the name and residence of such person pro- 
ducing the same, which certificate shall be in the following form: 

STATE OF MISSOURI, ) 
County of. . , \ 

This is to certify that in the county of A. B. 

did this da3^ prove before me that he had gathered, or caused to be 

gathered, of eggs, grasshoppers, and is 

entitled to the sum of dollars, and cents. 

Given under my hand a'^d seal of my office, this 
day of A. D. 18... 

A. B. , Clerk County Court. 

Which certificate shall be received a_d taken by the collector of 
revenue of the county in which the same was given, and such 
12 



178 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



collector shall be allowed paj^ out of tlie county and State Treasury, 
one-lialf from each. 

Sec. 5. Such clerk shall keep a register of all such certificates 
given by him, in a book which he shall keep for that purpose, in 
which he shall note down eveiy certificate granted by him, the 
number and amount, and to whom granted, and transmit a certified 
copy of such register, under the seal of the court, to the Treasurer 
of the State, wiio shall not allow and pay any certificate, which 
does not correspond with such register. 

Sec. 6. Such clerk shall receive for his services as aforesaid, 
one dollar for such certified copy of the register, and the regular 
fee for the certificate and seal, and ten cents for each certificate 
granted under this act, all to be paid out of the treasury of his county. 

Sec. 7. As the object of this act is the rapid destruction of the 
locust the ensuing spriug, it shall take effect and be in force from 
and after its passage. 

Approved February 23, 1877. 

Tliis act is drawn x;p after the form recommended in my 8th 
Report, and reprinted in the Omaha pamphlet. Section 3, 
requiring persons claiming bounty, to carry from all parts 
of the county, the eggs or young insects collected, is de- 
fective, as those living near the county seat will have 
most advantage and inducement. It . would be better 
to empower the Township Trustee, or the Street Commis- 
sioner, to receive and measure the eggs or young insects, 
and to issue certificates setting forth the number of bushels 
destroyed — the certificates to be filed with the County Clerk. 

KANSAS — An Act TO PROVIDE fou tur destruction of grass- 
hoppers AND to punish FOR VIOLATION OF THIS ACT. 

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas: 

Section 1. That the township trustees of the different town- 
ships, and the mayors of cities which are not included i a any township 
of any county within this State, are hereby authorized and it is made 
their duty, when so requested, in writing, by fifteen of the legal 
voters of the township or city, to issue orders to the road overseers 
of the different road districts within their respective townships or 
cities, to warn out all able-bodied males between the ages of twelve 
and fifty years within their respective districts for the purpose of 
destroying locusts or migratory insects. 

Sec 2. It shall be the duty of road overseers, immediately 
after receiving said orders, to proceed at once to warn out all persons 
liable under section one of this act, giving notice of the time and 



Practical Considerations. 179 



place of meeting, and the tools to be used, and the kind of work 
expected to be performed, and all work shall be done and performed 
under the direction of the road overseers. 

Sec. 3. Any persons over eighteen years of age warned out as is 
provided in this act, may pay the road overseer the sum of one 
dollar per day for the time so warned out, and in case any persons 
shall fail to perform labor under this act or paying the sum of one 
dollar when so warned out, shall be adjudged guilty of a misde- 
meanor, and on conviction, shall be fined the sum of three dollars 
for each day so failing or refusing, and the moneys so collected shall 
be expended by the road overseers in the destruction of grasshoppers 
in their respective road districts. 

Sec. 4. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this 
act the road overseer is authorized to enter upon the premises of any 
person lying within the township where such order of the township 
trustee is in force, with a sutficient number of hands and teams to 
perform such labor as he may deem necessary for the public good. 

Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the State Board 
of Agriculture, immediately after the passage of this act, to com- 
pile in circular form all information relating to the manner and 
means heretofore used for the extermination of grasshoppers, and 
send at least ten copies of the same to each township trustee m the 
State. 

Sec. 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after 
its publication once iu the CommomoeaWi . 

Approved March 6, 1877. 

An Act providing for a concert op action by senatorial, 
districts for the destruction of grasshoppers. 

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of KaJisas : 

Section 1 That in any senatorial district in the State of 
Kansas, where trouble is anticipated from the ravages of young 
grasshoppers, in the year 1877, and any subsequent year thereafter, 
it shall be lawful for the counties in said senatorial district to co- 
operate together in the way and manner herein provided, for the 
destruction of the same. 

Sec. 3. The chairman of the board of county commissioners in 
the county having the largest number of inhabitants in a senatorial 
district, where two or more counties form said district, may notify 
the chairman of each of the boards of county commissioners of the 
remaining counties in said district, of the time and place when 
the chairmen of the several boards of commissioners of the respec- 
tive counties forming said senatorial district shall hold a joint 
meeting. 

Sec. 3. At such meeting two of their number shall be chosen to 
act as chairman and secretaiy, and the proceedings of the meeting 
shall be published in all the newspapers printed in the senatorial 
district. 

Sec. 4. Said meeting shall designate the manner of procedure 



180 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



by road overseers, and what day or days the young grasshoppers 
should be driven from the cultivated land on the unburnt prairie or 
places of destruction, and shall also designate on what day or days 
the grasshoppers shall be destroyed, by burning or otherwise, in 
said senatorial district, giving at least ten days' notice of the same 
by publishing in the newspapers of the said district. 

Sec. 5. The board of commissioners of each county shall notify 
the road overseers of said county of the time fixed upon by the 
joint meeting for the driving and burning, or destroying by other 
means, of the grasshoppers in the district ; said notice to be given 
to said overseers as soon as practicable after the same shall have 
been determined by the joint meeting. 

Sec. 6. Said road overseers shall immediately notify the residents 
of his road district of the time designated and the manner of pro- 
cedure, in order to carry out the provisions of this act. He shall 
also specify what tools or implements will be required of each 
resident in performing the labor required of him ; and such notice 
may be enforced the same as in the acts authorizing road overseers 
to warn out the residents to perform road labor ; and a refusal shall 
subject such persons refusing to the same penalties as are provided 
by iaw in such cases. 

Sec. 7. The road overseers shall direct the manner of perform- 
ing the labor, and have the supervision of the same, and shall keep 
a list of the names of those who shall perform labor, and shall certify 
the number of days' work performed by each, and shall place such 
certified list in the possession of the board of county commissioners 
of his county. 

Sec. 8. It shall be lawful for two or more senatorial districts to 
co-operate together under the provisions of this act, on a basis of 
action which they may agree upon. 

Sec. 9. This act shalUake eflFect and be in force from and after 
its publication in the daily Commonwealth, 

Approved March 7, 1877. 

Both these acts look to compulsory work and concert 
of action, and in these respects are preferable to bounty 
acts, and will, without dojibt, be productive of more good 
to the community at less expense to the State. The ob- 
jects of the two acts should, I think, have been combined 
in one. 

MINNESOTA — An Act to provide for the destruction op 

GKASSHOPPERS AND THEIR EGGS. 

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota : 

Section 1. There shall be paid by this State, out of any moneys 
in the treasury thereof, not otherwise appropriated, to any person 



Practical Considerations. 181 



or persons living within any of the counties in said State aiflicted 
by grasshoppers, the following bounties for catching and destroying 
of the same, and the destruction of their eggs. 

Sec. 2. The sum of one dollar per bushel for grasshoppers 
caught previous to the twenty-fifth day of May next. The sum of 
fifty cents per bushel from the said twenty-fifth day of May to the 
tenth day of June. The sum of twenty-five cents per bushel from 
the said tenth day of June to the first day of July, and twenty cents 
per bushel from the said first day of July to the first day of Octo- 
ber next. 

Sec. 3. There shall also be paid in the same manner, the sum of 
fifty cents per gallon for any and all grasshopper eggs taken and 
destroyed by any person or persons. 

Sec. 4. There shall be appointed by the Governor a competent 
person in each township in the several counties so afliicted by grass- 
hoppers, who shall be a resident of the township for which he shall 
be appointed, to receive, measure and destroy the grasshoppers and 
their eggs delivered to him by any person or persons catching and 
taking the same, which said person so appointed shall take and 
subscribe an oath for the faithful discharge of his duties, which 
oath, together with the certificate of appointment, shall be filed in 
the office of the county auditor, and he shall receive as compensa- 
tion for his services such sum as the county commissioner may deter- 
mine, to be paid out of the funds of the county ; and in case of 
necessity, when he can not perform the duties of his office, said 
measurer shall have authority and be empowered to appoint a suit- 
able and competent person his assistant, which assistant shall be 
required to take and subscribe the same oath and be subject to the 
same penalties as the said measurer. 

Sec. 5. The person receiving and measuring the grasshoppers 
and their eggs as aforesaid, shall measure and immediately and 
effectually destroy the same, and keep an exact account of all the 
grasshoppers and their eggs received by him and the names of the 
persons delivering the same, and shall issue a certificate for the 
amount of grasshoppers and their eggs to the person delivering the 
same. And he shall, at the end of each week after commencing to 
receive and measure the same, and on the second day of June, on 
the eleventh day of said month, on the second day of July, and on 
the second day of October next, make a report to the county auditor 
of all the grasshoppers and their eggs measured by him, the number 
of certificates issued, and the names of the persons to whom he 
issued the same ; and the county auditor shall examine the same 
and file it in his office, which report shall be subject to public in- 
spection ; and the county auditor shall, at the end of each week 
after he shall have received the first of said reports, transmit a copy 
of the said reports to the Governor, who shall, as soon as the sum 
hereby appropriated shall have been expended in the payment of 
said bounties, notify all persons interested therein of such fact by a 
publication of such notice in some newspaper printed and published 
at the city of Saint Paul, in said State of Minnesota, for three suc- 
cessive days. 



182 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



Sec. 6. For a failure on the part of said measurer to perform 
any of his duties under tliis act, or for any misnicasurement of 
such gnisshoi)pcrs and their ef2;fis, he shall be deemed to be guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and be sul)joct to pay a line of not less tlian 
ten dollars nor more thiin one hundred dollars, or ])(? imprisoned in 
the county jail for a term of not less than thirty nor more than 
ninety days, in a suit or i)roceeding to be prosecuted in the name 
of the State of Minnesota, in tlie same manner as is provided by 
law in other cnscs of misdemeanor. 

Skc. 7. Upon the ])rescntation of such certificate to the county 
auditor, he shall issue a certificate to the i)erson entitled thereto for 
the amount due him, (a form of which certificate shall be furnislied 
by the State Auditor), and shall make an order upon the Stale Au- 
ditor for the amount thereof, and the State Auditor shall draw liis 
warrant U])on the State Treasurer for tiiat amount, in favor of the 
])arties Iiolding said certificiiles, which sliall be paid by the State 
Treasurer on presentation : Provided, That all certificates presented 
to the county ainlitor for paymcint shall be by him tiled and pre- 
served in his ofiic(!, and he shall present such certificates to the 
board of county commissioners, who shall audit the same in the 
manner now provided by law for auditing accounts against coun- 
ties ; and no money shall be drawn from the State Treasury until 
such certificates have been audited and allowed in the manner 
heniin provided. And that no money shall be |)aid under the pro- 
visions of this act at any time prior to the fifteenth day of July, 
A.I), eighteen huiulred and .seventy-seven, and that the money here- 
by appropriat(Hl shall only apply to (^ertificiites duly made and filed 
with the Auditor of State on or before .said day ; that at the time 
after the State Auditor shall ascertain the total amount of all 
claims and c(!rtifi(;atcs so tiled, and if the same shall exceed in 
amount the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, then the said 
claims shall be paid i^ro rnia, and no oilier or greater amount than 
said sum of one himdred thousand dollars .shall ever be i)aid under 
the provisions of this act; And provided Jnrlher, That if the 
amount hereby a])i)ropriated is not sufiicient to i)ay the certificates 
in full, the balance shall be paid by the counties respectively, ac- 
cording to the amount due on said certificates as issued by such 
county. 

Skc. 8 Every male inhabitant of the several townships in the 
said alllicted counties, being above the age of twenty-one years and 
under the age of sixty years, excerpting paupers, idiots and lunatics, 
shall bo assessed by the board of supervisors of said township to 
work one day in each week in said township, during the period 
hereinbefore nurntioned, for the paying of bounties for the purpose 
of catching and destroying grasshoppers and their eggs, for five 
weeks from the time said gra.sshoppers shall become large enough 
to be taken ; and the amount of work to be so assessed sli:<ll not 
exceed five days in all. 

Sk(\ y. The supervisors aforesaid .shall make a list of the names 
of all persons against whom said tax shall have bcren assessed, and 
place in a column (jpjiosite each name on said list, the amount of 



Practical Considerations. 188 



labor assessed against such person, and shall direct the town clerk 
to m=ike a certified copy of each lint, after which the town cicik 
shall deliver the several copies to the respective overseers of the 
highways of snid townships. 

!»EC. 10. The overseers of highways shall give at least two 
days' notice to all persons assessed to work as aforesaid, living 
within the limits of tiieir respective districts, of the time and 
places where and when they are to appear for that purpose, and 
with what implements. 

Skc. 11. Every i>erson liable to work, as provid(d for in this 
act, may commute for the same at the rate of one dollar per day, in 
which case such commutation money shall be paid to the chairman 
of the board of supervisors, to be applied and expended by him for 
the destruction of grasshoppers and their eggs, and he shall be 
authorized and required to hiie and enjrage some suitaljle and efli- 
cient person to work in the place of said person so commuting, and 
to pay him the sum of one dollar per flay for Ids services ; and 
every person intending to commute for his assessment shall, within 
five days after he is notified to appear and work as aforesairl, pay 
the commutation money for the work required of him by said 
notice, and the commutation shall no' be consideied as made until 
such money is paid. 

8kc. 12. Every person so assessed and notified, who shall will- 
fully neglect or refuse to commute or woik as provided by this 
act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction 
thereof, be liable to pay a fine of not less than two dollars nor 
more than ten dollars, or by imprisonment in Ihe county jail not 
more than ten days, or both, in the discretion of the court, in a 
suit to be |)rosecuted in the name of the State of Minnesota, in the 
same manner as is provided by law for prosecutions of misde- 
meanors. 

Sec. 13. There shall be appropriated, out of any moneys in the 
treasury of this State, not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose 
of carrying out the provisions of this act, the sum of one hundred 
thousand dollars. 

Sec. 14. The board of county commissioners of any county in 
this State afilicted by grassho|)pers, shall have the right, if in their 
judgment they see fit, to employ one or more persons in each town- 
ship in said county with feuch implements or mechanical contriv- 
ances as may prove most eflficient to destroy the grasshoppers, from 
the first day of April to the first day of August in each year, paying 
such persons either by the day or a specified sum for the amount 
captured and destroyed. The compensation of such person shall 
be paid out of the general fund of the county : Pronded Jurl/ur, 
That parties employed and paid by the county commissioners shall 
not receive any other or further comi»eD8ation under the provihions 
of this act. 

Sec. 15. This act shall take effect and be in force from and 
after its passaire. 

Approved March 1, 1877. 



184 Tlie RocTt}/ Mountain Locud. 

]More complicated tlian the others, this Minnesota act 
has certain special features which are intended to meet the 
peculiar emergency in that State. Yet I do not think the 
act is so clear or will prove so effectual as the first Kansas 
act. In addition to this bounty act, the Minnesota Legis- 
lature passed another, appropriating $75,000 for the pur- 
chase and distribution of seed grain to the sufferers from 
locust injuries. 



NEBRASKA — Ax Act to provide for the destruction of 

GRASSHOPPERS. 

Whereas the State of Nebraska has, for the past three years, 
been devastated by the grasshoppers, thereby greatly injuring the 
agricultural and commercial interests of the State ; and whereas 
these interests are liable to be seriously damaged in the future by 
the recurrence of the pests aforesaid ; therefore. 

Be it enacted by the Legislature of tlie State of Nebraska . 

Section 1 . That the supervisors of each road district in this 
State shall, at the time when the grasshoppers shall have been 
hatched out, and before the same shall become full-fledged and fly, 
notify each able-bodied male resident of his district, between the 
ages of sixteen and sixty years, to perform two days' labor, at such 
time and at such place and in such manner as shall by said super- 
visors be deemed most eflicient in the destruction of the grasshop- 
pers ; said notices shall be given in the same manner as is provided 
by law for the notice to work upon public highways. 

Sec. 2. Cities of the first and second class shall be governed by 
the provisions of this act, and it shall be the duty of the mayor of 
such cities to appoint, not exceeding two supervisors for each 
ward, to oversee the labor to be performed under the provisions of 
this act. 

Sec. 3. In case it shall appear that two days' work is not suffi- 
cient to destroy the grasshoppers in saxj district or ward, and it 
shall further appear that more time can be profitably employed 
in the destruction of the grasshoppers, the supervisors of each ward 
or road district may require from the persons liable to the provis- 
ions of this act, not exceeding ten days' labor in addition to the 
time hereinbefore mentioned ; and it shall be the duty of such 
supervisor to give to each person who shall have performed labor 
under the provisions of this section a receipt for the number of 
days' labor performed, and the supervisor shall upon oath report to 
the city or county authorities the names and amount of labor per- 
formed by eacli person. 

Sec. 4. It shall be the dutj' of all persons subject to the pro- 



Practical Considerations. 185 

visions of this act to attend when notified as herein provided, and 
labor under the direction of the supervisor of their respective dis- 
trict or ward. Any person who, after being notified, shall refuse, 
neglect, or fail to comply with the provisions of this act, shall for- 
feit and pay to the county or city treasurers, as the case may be, 
the sum of ten dollars, together with costs of suit, which sum 
shall be collected by suit before any justice of the peace within the 
county, in an action to be brought in the name of the city or 
county. 

Sec. 5. The supervisor shall report, under oath, to the city or 
county authorities the names of all persons who shall have refused 
or failed to comply with the provisions of this act. 

Sec. 6. This being a case of emergency, this act shall take effect 
and be in force from and after its passage. 

In reference to bounty laws, the experience of Minnesota, 
where they were in force in some counties in 1875, is val- 
uable, and the State Commissioners did not hesitate to 
recommend the system after the county trials, imperfect 
as they were, and commenced as they were, in most cases, 
too late in the season. It was clearly shown that in one 
township $30,000 worth of crops was saved by an expendi- 
ture of $6,000. Nicollet county paid $25,053 for 25,053 
bushels of locusts, but the price paid by other counties 
was higher ; in fact, much too high. A good law, once 
enacted and on the statute books, might not be called into 
operation for many years, but would beyond all doubt 
serve an admirable purpose in the event of a locust inva- 
sion. The following are what I conceive should be the 
essential features of an efficient bounty law : 1 . The bounty 
should he paid out of the State Treasury; or it should be 
graded and borne equally, one-third by the local Township^ 
one-third by the County^ and one-third by the State. 2. 
The bounty shoidd be immediately available to those earn- 
ing it. 3. The Act shoidd^ so far as possible^ tend to the 
destruction of the eggs. 4. After the eggs^ the destruction 
of the netoly -hatched locusts should be encouraged by the 
Act. A bushel of the newly-hatched insects will contain 
thirty or more times as many individuals as will a bushel 



186 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

of the pupre, and, moreover, their destruction prevents the 
subsequent injury. It would be folly to pay sixty cents a 
bushel for them later in the season when they are nearly 
full-grown and have done most of the harm they are capa- 
ble of doing. The price, therefore, should vary with the 
season; and while, in latitude SO'', 75 cents or $1.00 should 
be offered in March, the price should diminish to 50 cents 
in April, 25 cents in May, and 10 cents in June. As the 
dates of hatching vary with the latitude, so the law should 
vary in the matter of dates, according to the requirements 
of each particular State. In addition to the foregoing re- 
quirements of such an act, every precaution should be 
taken to prevent fraud and dishonesty in obtaining the 
money. 

The laws obliging proper labor will prove more bene- 
ficial to a community than the bounty laws, and the labor 
is best performed, first in destroying the eggs in the fall, 
and next in destroying the young insects after the bulk of 
them have hatched out in the spring. 

In the more thinly settled parts of the country, laws may 
be more or less ineffectual, so far as the general destruction 
of the insects is concerned, though they will even there be 
one of the best means of relieving destitution ; but in more 
thickly settled sections they will accomplish both results. 



CHAPTER IX. 



LOCUST RAVAGES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

RAVAGES OF MIGRATORY LOCUSTS IN THE ATLANTIC 
STATES. 

We have already seen how the true Rocky Mountain 
Locust, which rarely reaches the Mississippi, may be dis- 
tinguished from the Red-legged species, which often mixes 
with it and is common to a much larger extent of country, 
and reaches to the Atlantic. We have also seen that the 
ravages of migratory locusts between the Mississippi and 
the Rocky Mountains, and probably to the Pacific, are 
confined to the one, long-winged species, (spretus). " How 
then," will naturally be asked, " do you account for the 
ravages of migratory locusts in the Atlantic States, since 
swarms have been known in those States to fly over the 
country and commit sad havoc, and since you tell us 
that the Reg-legged species is incapable of such migra- 
tions ? " This question, which was first properly answered 
in my 7th Report, I will now proceed to elucidate. 

As to migrating locusts doing great damage in some of 
the Eastern States during certain years, there can be no 
doubt of the fact. Harris, in his Treatise on Injurious 
Insects, gives an account extracted from the Travels of 
President Dwight, wherein they are recorded as being 
most destructive in Vermont in 1797 and 1798, and as 
collecting in clouds, rising in the air and taking extensive 
flights — even covering persons employed in raising a 

(187) 



188 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

church steeple, who, in such position, still saw the insects 
flying far above their heads. He also quotes from Wil- 
liamson's History of Maine, that in 1749 and 1754 they 
were very numerous and voracious; that *'in 1743 and 
1756 they covered the whole country and threatened to 
devour everything green." Among the communications 
which I received in 1874 was the following, descriptive of 
locust ravages in New Hampshire : 

Dear Sir: I see a note in the New York Tribune requesting 
those from the hicust regions to send you specimens of the variety. 
I send you a vial of them to-day by mail. They have been quite 
plenty in the Merrimack Valley on some farms. Tliey have eaten 
all of our garden vegetables; in others they left us a small share. 
The small ones are the most plenty and tlie ones that have done the 
most mischief. I should like to know if they are of the same 
variety that infested the West. 

Yours truly, LEWIS COLBY. 

BoscAWEN, Merrimack Co., N. H., Sept. 17, 1874. 

The following account by Dr. U. T. True of the appear- 
ance of these insects in Cumberland county, Maine, in 1821, 
is so circumstantial that I give it in full, as quoted by Mr. 
S. H. Scudder:* 

During the haying season the weather was dry ind hot, and these 
hungry locusts stripped the leaves from the clover and herds-grass, 
leaving nothing but the naked stems. In consequence, the hay- 
crop was seriously diminished in value. So ravenous had they 
become that tbey would attack clover, eating it into shreds. Rake 
and pitchfork handles, made of white ash and worn to a glossy 
smoothness by use, would be found nibbled over by them if left 
within their reach. 

As soon as the hay was cut and they had eaten every living thing, 
they removed to the adjacent crops of gram, completely stripping 
the leaves: climbing the naked stalks they would eat off the stems 
of wheat and rye just below the head, and leave them to drop to 
the ground. I well remember assisting in sweeping a large cord 
over the heads of wheat after dark, causing the insects to drop to 
the ground, where most of them would remain during the night. 
During harvest time it was my painful duty, with a younger brother, 
to pick up the fallen wheat heads for threshing; they amounted to 
several bushels. 

* Hayden's Report on the Geological Survey of Nebraska; and "The Distri- 
bution of Insects in New Hampshire," p. 375. 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 189 



Their next attack was upon the Indian corn and potatoes. They 
stripped the leaves and ate out the silk from the corn, so that it was 
rare to harvest a full ear. Among forty or fifty bushels of corn . 
spread out in the coru-room, not an ear could be found not mottled 
with detached kernels. 

While thirse insects were more than usually abundant in the 
town generally, it was in the field I have described that they 
appeared in the greatest intensity. After they had stripped every- 
thing from the field, they began to emigrate in countless numbers. 
They crossed the highway and attacked the vegetable garden. I 
remember the curious appearance of a large, flourishing bed of 
red onions, whose tops they first literally ate up, and not content 
with that, devoured the interior of the bulbs, leaving the dry exter- 
nal covering in place. The provident care of my mother, who 
covered the bed with chaff from the stable floor, did not save them, 
while she was complimented the next year for so successfully sow- 
ing the garden down to grass. The leaves were stripped from the 
apple trees. They entered the house in swarms, reminding one of 
the locusts of Egypt, and, as we walked, they would rise in count- 
less numbers and fly away in clouds. 

As the nights grew cooler they collected on the spruce and hem- 
lock stumps and log fences, completely covering them, eating the 
moss and decomposed surface of the wood, and leaving the surface 
clean and new. They would perch on the west side of a stump, 
where they could feel the warmth of the sun, and work around to 
the east side in the morning as the sun reappeared. The foot-paths 
in the fields were literally covered with their excrements. 

During the latter part of Aueust and the first of September, when 
the air was still dry, and for several days in succession a high wind 
prevailed from the northwest, the locusts frequently rose in the air 
to an immense height. By looking up at the sky in the middle of 
a clear day, as nearly as possible in the direction of tlie sun, one 
may descry a locust at a great height. These insects could thus be 
seen in swarms, appenriug like so many thistle-blows, as they 
expanded their wings and were borne along toward the sea before 
the wind; myriads of them were drowned in Casco bay, and I 
remember hearing that they frequently dropped on the decks of 
coasting vessels. Cart loads of dead bodies remained in the fields, 
forming in spots a tolerable coating of manure. 

Mr. I. S. Smith says that he has seen " hackmatack trees 
almost covered with them, and entirely stripped of their 
leaves." * 

All these accounts agree in referring the injury to the 
common Red-legged Locust; but as I am fully persuaded 
that this species, as found in Illinois and Missouri, is inca- 

* Rep. Connecticut State Bd. of Agi-., 1872, p. 363. 



190 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

pable of any extended flight,* I could not help feeling that 
some other species had been confounded with it, and had 
played the part of migratory locust in the White Moun- 
tain regions of Maine and New Hampshire. It was with 
satisfaction, therefore, that, upon examining the locusts 
sent me by Mr. Colby, I found them to belong to the 
species defined in Chapter I, as Atlanis, which is smaller 
than either the Rocky Mountain or the Red-legged species, 
but in structure and relative length of wing much more 
nearly resembles the former than the latter; in other words, 
its relative length of wing enables it to fly with almost the 
same facility as its Rocky Mountain congener. 

INJURY FROAI OTHER, NON-MIGRATORY LOCUSTS. 

Almost every year, in some part or other of the country, 
we hear reports of injury by locusts. In 1868, for instance, 
while the Rocky Mountain species was attracting attention, 
as I have already stated, (p. 37), in many parts of the 
West, other non-migratory species were extremely inju- 
rious in the Mississippi Valley, and in the Eastern States. 
In Ohio they appeared in countless myriads during that 
year, and at the meeting of the Cincinnati Wine Growers' 
Society it was stated that they invaded the vineyards, 
destroying entire rows, defoliating the vines and sucking 
out the juices of the berries. In the same year I saw them 
in countless millions in many parts of Illinois and Missouri. 
They actually stripped many corn-fields in these States, 
and had not the crops been unusually abundant, would 
have caused some suftering. They were very destructive 
to flower and vegetable gardens. 

* I do not meau by this that it is incapable of rising in the air; but 1 am quite 
sure that as found in St. Louis county it is incapable of any such flights as sprttus 
takes. In the higher parts of the country, whether East or West, the power of 
flight may be greater. 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 191 

In 1869, they were, if anything, worse than in 1868. I 
xemember that in the vicinity of St. Louis, in addition to 
their ordinary injuries, they stripped the tops of Norway 
Spruce, Balsam Fir and Euro^jean Larch ; took the blos- 
soms off Lima beans ; severed grape stems, and ate num- 
erous holes into apples and peaches, thereby causing them 
to rot. They were indeed abundant all over Illinois. 
Missouri, Iowa, and even Kentucky ; but attracted no 
attention East. 

In 1871 they were again very destructive, especially 
East, as the following items will show : 

The grasshoppers (locusts) have been more numerous and de- 
structive this year, in Maine, than perhaps ever before. This was 
partly owing to the dry weather, and with the advent of the rainy 
season we hope their career will be somewhat checked. In this 
county they are thick, but in some of the central portions of the 
State tliey literally swarm, devouring nearly every green thing 
before lliem. They did much injury to the grass fields, and, now 
that is cut, they have betaken themselves to the cultivated crops. 
In some cases, whole fields of corn and beans have been completely 
stripped. Even the potatoes have not been spared. — [Country 
Gentleman, Aug. 10, 1871, speaking of Insects in Maine. 

Grasshoppers are reported to have very seriously injured the 
corn, grass and grain crops (and in some cases orchards and nur- 
series) of the counties of Androscoggin, Franklin, Knox, Kennebec, 
Lincoln, Oxford, Piscataquis, Penobscot, Waldo and Somerset, in 
3Iaine. So serious has been the damage that the subject was made 
a topic at the recent State Agricultural Convention in that State. 
In Androscoggin county, they injured pastures greatly, and affected 
the condition and price of stock. Some grain fields were protected 
by drawing a rope across the heads at sunset, thus brushing ofi' the 
insects and preventing feeding. In Franklin county, a field of 
twelve acres of sweet corn was only saved by keeping a man in it 
continually to drive out the grasshoppers. One man in York county 
stopped their passage to liis fields hy building a brush fence around 
them. — [American Agriculturist, 1871. 

These pests (the locusts) have been numerous and destructive 
during the past month, in some portions of the Eastern States. In 
Sagadahoc county, Maine, the crop^ and pastures were injured by 
them very much ; also in Hancock county. In Franklin, many 
fields of grain were cut to save the crops from them and for feed- 
ing. In Oxford, oats were " eaten entirely down, as clean as though 
fed upon by sheep." In some portions of Plymouth county, Mass., 



192 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



they are reported to have eaten everything green. In Caledonia 
county, Vermont, they have been very destructive. All through 
Windsor they have been " a terrible scourge." In Orleans they 
are reported abundant, and in Windham they have done " much in- 
jury to some of the crops" In Waj'-ne county, Pennsylvania, also, 
they are reported to have done much damage. — [Monthly Report 
Dep. of Agr. for August and September, 1871. 

In 1872 they were again injurious East : 

The grasshoppers are making great havoc on the grass, grain 
and corn. For a space of about one and a half miles square, they 
are destroying almost everything. Clover is trimmed up all but the 
head ; oat tields look like lields of rushes coming up to the height 
of sixteen to eighteen inches witliout leaf or head. The leaves of 
wheat and their kernels are eaten out. These hoppers move back 
and forth two or three times a day, and whole sections are almost 
alive with them. — [^Mirror and Farmer (New Hampshire), August 
10, 1872. 

In 1874, again, much injury by them was reported in the 
Mississippi Valley and eastward, and a few extracts will 
suffice to indicate how numerous they often were : 

The grasshopers destroyed four acres of my wheat last fall ; ate 
and destroyed my timothy twice ; sowed the ground again this 
spring, but as there are still plenty of hoppers, there is not much 
hope for a stand. — [Letter extract from G. Pauls, Eureka, Mo., 
Nov. 10, 1874. 

Some of our good friends in Suffolk county. Virginia, were un- 
duly excited this summer over the idea that the Western destructive 
grasshopper, Caloptenus spretus of Uhler, had found its way to the 
"sacred soil of Virginia." There was no denying the fact that 
myriads of grasshoppers were devouring nearly "every green 
thing," even settling on the trunks and limbs of trees, and gnawing 
the bark in a most unkind manner ; and as it appeared to be some- 
thing altogether foreign to the locality, of course it must be the 
Western pest. Specimens were forwarded to us, however, and a 
glance was sufficient to show us there was no need for alarm, as it 
was quite a common species in this part of the United States, and 
though rather too plentiful in this particular locality, would not 
spread or become the terror that its Western distant relative has 
proved. The insect is known as the Acridium Aniericanum, and is 
of large size, often measuring over two and a half inches in length. 
— [C. R. Dodge, in Rural Carolinian, November, 1874. 

In 1875, again, the indigenous species were very abun- 
dant, and were often supposed to be the genuine spretus, the 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 193 

young of wliicli were at the time devastating portions of 
the West. The reports of this last in Jefferson, Franklin 
and Moniteau counties in the Monthly Report of the De- 
partment of Agriculture for November and December of 
that year, undoubtedly refer to indigenous species, and are 
a sample of the reliability of much of the entomological 
information that comes through that channel. They were 
troublesome not only in the Mississippi Valley, but in the 
East, for I know that they did great damage to oats and 
meadows in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the following 
items doubtless refer to Atlanis and femur-rubrum, and 
will show how injurious they were in Massachusetts : 

Gbasshoppers in Boston. — We did not anticipate that Boston 
proper would ever be inconvenienced by the pests which have 
proved so destructive out West, but it is a tact that grasshoppers are 
so numerous at the South End that they destroy the flowers in the 
back yards to such an extent that hens are hired or bought to clear 
the premises and save the ornamental plants which adorn the prem- 
ises. These insects are not of the western pattern, but are native 
productions. If their ravages continue, it is possible some of our 
western friends will be called upon to rai=e subscriptions for the 
relief of the floriculturists of Boston. — [Boston Journal. 

I venture to ask your advice in a grasshopper matter. Three 
y^ears ago a party of farmers and others in this commonwealth, tired 
of granite hills, gravel banks and sand flats, and wishing some little 
latent fertility in the original soil — combined to effect, and did effect, 
the reclamatiou from the sea of about 1400 acres of what originally 
was ' salt marsh.' We are amply satisfied of the fertility of this 
land, and so far, all is good. Last summer, however, this land and 
adjoining territory was scourged with a plague of locusts or grass- 
hoppers. Whether they came in such numbers owing to the diking 
of these 1400 acres, or whether they would, last year, have come in 
equal numbers whether the marsh was diked or not, we can not say. 
Our question is this, and is at the same time the point upon which 
we pray your advice : Can we do anything to diminish the number 
of these pests for next year ? We could, for example, flood this 
whole tract of land until early spring. Would this be advisable ? 
Any points you would be kind enough to give us on the matter, 
would be thankfully received. — [Letter from C. Herschel, Boston, 
Mass., latter part of October. 

Tn short, during hot and dry years, which are favorable 
to the multiplication of crickets and locusts, more or less 
13 



194 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



injury is done in all parts of the country, by species 
indigenous to the different localities, but which in ordinary 
seasons do not attract any special attention. 

The principal depredator in such cases, in the Mississippi 
Valley, is the wide-spread Red-legged Locust, already 



[Fig. 3T.1 




Differential Locust. 

described and illustrated, (p. 14), and so often confounded 
with the true migrating Rocky Mountain species. The 
next most injurious is the Differential Locust {Galoptenus 
differentialis^WdXk., Fig.37), a species at once distinguished 
in the more typical specimens, from the preceding, not only 
by its larger size, but by its brighter yellow and green colors. 
The head and thorax are olive-brown, and the front wings 
very much of the same color, and, without other marks, have 
a brownish shade at base, the hind wings being tinged with 
green; the hind thighs are bright yellow, especially below, 
with the four black marks as in spretus, and the hind shanks 
[ Fig. .38 ] are yellow, with 

black spines, and 
a black ring near 
the base. Next 




Two-STKiPED Locust. 



m injuriousness 
comes the Two- 
striped Locust, 
{Caloptemis bivit- 
tatus, Say, Fig. 38), also a larger species, of a dull, olive- 
green color, the hind thighs conspicuously yellow beneath, 
and with two yellow lines extending from above the eyes 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 195 

along each side of the thorax superiorly, and thence, more 
distinctly on the front wings, narrowing and approaching 
toAvard their tips, when closed. All these species belong to 
the same genus as our Rocky Mountain Locust, and, except 
in being unable to sustain long-continued flight,* agree 
with it in habit. 

There are several locusts belonging to other genera which 
are common over large areas fi'om the Atlantic to the 
Mississippi; and some of them, belonging to the genera 
Acridium and (Edipoda have relatively longer wings than 
the common Red-legged Locust, and consequently greater 
power of flight. Yet they are seldom as injurious as the 
short- winged Calopteni just enumerated, and the swarming 
oi Acridium Americanum (our largest species), as present- 
ly described and as recorded in the paragraph from the 
Rural Carolinian, {ante, p. 192), is quite exceptional. 

LOCUST FLIGHTS IN ILI-INOIS IN 1875. 

The manner in which some writers have clung to the 
idea that the Rocky Mountain Locust must overrun Mis- 
souri, Illinois, and the States to the East, in spite of oppos- 
ing facts, can be accounted for only by inordinate love of 
magnifying possible danger and of making as much of a 
sensation as possible out of any misfortune that befalls a 
community. A certain amount of apprehension is pardon- 
able ; and that, under such apprehension, all sorts of 



* Their power to sustain flight will increase as we approach the higher and drier 
western country toward the mountains, and, I believe, according as the season of 
their growth in any part of the country is hot and dry. The colors, also, become 
brighter and lighter as we go west, with a tendency to increase of wing-length, 
and a diminution of body-bulk. This is very noticeable in traveling over the 
Western plains, where bivittatvs, for instance, which, ordinarily, is far more de- 
structive than spretus is to gardens in Western Kansas and Colorado, loses much 
of Its dull, olive-green color, and is brighter- and lighter-colored and longer- 
winged, on an average, than at St. Louis. 



196 Tlie Rocky Mountam Locust. 



insects, some of them having no relation to locusts, should 
be mistaken for the Rocky Mountain pest, is natural with 
persons who have had no acquaintance with it, and are 
unfamiliar with its appearance. In Sept. of 1875, many- 
prominent papers of the West gave the news that the 
dreaded swarms had finally come into Illinois. In jjoint 
of fact, large swarms of locusts did pass over the central 
portion of that State, early in September, and more par- 
ticularly over parts of Livingston, McLean, Vermillion, 
Ford, and Champaign counties. Small and scattered 
flights were also seen later in the month. Some writers 
jumped to the conclusion that said swarms were of the 
Rocky Mountain species, without, however, giving a par- 
ticle of proof. There is nothing absolutely impossible in 
the occurrence of scattering swarms of the genuine spretiis 
in Illinois the year following a general invasion such as 
we had in 18'74 ; for while I have expressed the opinion 
that the species will never do any damage east of the 94th 
meridian, I have admitted that it may temporarily extend 
to some distance beyond that line. But in 1875 we had 
no reports of swarms passing over the country to the 
Northwest or the northwest part of Illinois, prior to their 
occurrence in the middle counties, and I felt so confident 
that the swarms were composed of indigenous species, that 
I so stated my belief in the Chicago Evening Journal of 
Sept. 9th of that yfear, and expressed the opinion that they 
had originated within the borders of the State ; tliat there 
was no occasion for alarm, and that they would scarcely 
be heard of after they settled. These opinions were subse- 
quently justified by the facts ; for after taking every pains 
to ascertain the truth, all specimens from such flights, 
examined by competent persons, proved to be indigenous 
species. We heard nothing of their ravages or of their 
rising again and passing over the country to the south or 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 197 

east. Moreover, their flight seems to have been irregular, 
and poorly sustained. Mr. H. P. Beach, County Judge of 
Ford county, 111., in sending me specimens, wrote, Sep- 
tember 15 : 

About ten days ago, myriads of grasshoppers flew southward 
over town. Many of them came down, evidently unable to keep up 
the journey. They seemed to be all the way from a hundred feet 
to a quarter or half a mile high, or perhaps very much higher. In 
looliing up toward the sun — the only way they could be seen — the 
appearance was much like that of a snow-storm looked at in tlie 
same wa}^ We have pot heard from them since, and of course can 
give you no idea from "whence they cometh and whither they 
goeth." 

Mr. B. F, Johnson, the Champaign (III) correspondent 
of ihe' Country Gentleman., who supposed the species to be 
spretus, also in speaking of these flights, wrote to that 
paper (Sept. 10, 1875) : 

When first seen, their movements and motions were so unlike 
whnt I had conceived their flights to be, that it was not till several 
disabled or partially exhausted insects had been caught, and then* 
identity with the Kansas species demonstrated, that I was convinced 
of their true character. I had supposed that these creatures flew 
in a manner as pigeons and ducks and geese do — straight ahead in 
a given direction, and with a purpose. On the contrary, eveiy 
insect seemed to be out on a holiday, and acting independently of 
all the others. While the vast mass slowly moved south, with an 
inclination toward the east, there was a constant circular movement 
of a vast majority of the whole number of individuals. * * * 
When it got noised abroad that they were flying, the fact produced 
a startling sensation. Would they increase in nurabors till the sun 
was darkened, and then descend and devour up every green thing, 
and leave eggs for a progeny behind them that would repeat the 
disaster next summer ? These fears were speedily dispelled when 
their numbers were seen to diminish, and when it was considered 
that all the grasshoppers which had passed over, did they come 
down could make but small impression on the ten thousand square 
miles of corn in Central Illinois. 

Actual examination of specimens from these flying bev- 
ies over Illinois, showed them to have been composed of 
three species, viz., the Red-legged, the Atlantic and the 
Diflerential locusts : in no instance was a specimen of 



198 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

sjjretus seen. The several specimens obtained from Ford 
county were all Atlanis / a single specimen received horn 
Mr. H, J. Dunlap, of Champaign, was a male feniur- 
rubricm ; while specimens taken by Prof. Burrill, of the 
Industrial University, at the same place, as well as others 
from Norwood, Mercer county, sent to Prof. Thomas, were 
differentialis. The parties capturing these specimens are 
not apt to fall into error, and are all positive that the 
specimens submitted were from the flying bevies. 

From these facts it results that two species, viz., femur- 
ruhrum and dijferentialis, though normally having no 
migratory habit, and, as I believe, incapable of extended 
flights, can actually assist in such flights. That the bulk 
of these Illinois swarms was composed, however, of At- 
lanis, scarcely admits of a doubt. The other two, less 
able to sustain lengthened flight, would naturally be most 
near the ground and most often captured ; while Aikinis, 
which we now know to occur in this part of the country 
as well as East, and to often display the migratory habit, 
would fly higher. 

There are two facts which it will be well to boar in mind 
in this connection, as explaining the above phenomena. 
The first is, that Atlanis was very common in Missouri, 
even in fields where it had never been noticed before. It 
prevailed to such an extent in Illinois, that around Carbon- 
dale Prof. Thomas could not find a single specimen of the 
tj inca,\ femur-rubrum, and there was not a single specimen 
of it among a number which he caused to be collected for 
me. 

The second fact is, that clijfere)itialis was also unusually 
abundant. A letter from Mr. M. Brinkerhoft', of Onarga, 
Illinois, dated October 18, 1875, and accompanied by speci- 
mens, describes them as in great numbers there, filling the 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. .199 

ground with their eggs.* The following, which refers to 
the same species, is also interesting : 

While the migrating hopper committed such devastation west of 
us, we here at Bluft'ton have the manor-born, in immense numbers. 
A patch of potatoes and some sweet corn seemed in danger of being 
consumed, when a flock of purple grackles, our crow blackbird, as 
it is usually called, came to our rescue. The few days that they have 
visited the patch has thinned out the hoppers amazingly. I never 
before noticed that this bird was so useful in this respect ; and jis 
they are plenty, we may expect to be rid of the big grey fellows 
(hoppers). They are more than twice the size of the Colorado hop- 
per, and are nearly as bad on a crop when plenty. What saved our 
little crop from utter destruction was an open field of land thickly 
covered with wild chamomile, upon which they fairly swarmed. 
On this we saw them as thick as the Colorados, in Sedalia or War- 
rensburg. — [S. Miller, in Rural World, August 14, 1875. 

Though unusually common, yet cUfferentialis, if I may 
judge from my own experience in our fields and around 
Chicago, that year, compared only as one to fifty with 
Atlanis, and it is doubtful if it formed a larger proportion 
of the flights. How are these exceptional migrations of 
local species to be explained ? We know, from what has 
preceded, that they have occurred at intervals in the East, 
and we now have evidence that they may occur in any 
part of the country ; and indeed local swarms were not 
confined to Illinois in 1875, as they were also noticed in 
Kentucky. I think the explanation is simple. The ex- 
cessively hot, dry years of 1873 and 1874 permitted the 
undue multiplication of these native species, and they 
were already very troublesome in the latter year, {ante, 
p. 192). The myriads that hatched out in 1875 were 

* The eggs of Caloptenus differentialis may be distinguished from those of 
spreitcs by the larger and more irregular size of the mass ; by the greater num- 
ber composing it ; by the somewhat larger size of the individual egg, which meas- 
nies 0.10— 0."22 inch in length ; by the coarser reticulations of the shell, and by the 
brown color of the gummy fibrous matter that is intermixed with them and glues 
them together. The color of the egg varies from yellow to deep cameous, the 
latter prevailing, and the posterior or narrower end is always somewhat constricted 
and darker. 



200 The RocJcy Mountain Locust. 

scarcely noticed at first, and made little impression on the 
luxuriant vegetation that a wet and favorable season pro- 
duced. By September, when a spell of dry weather cured 
the grass and the locusts had acquired full growth, we can 
imagine that they swarmed in much of the prairie country 
of Central Illinois. Whenever they abound to an unusual 
degree the migrating instinct is developed, just as it is 
under like circumstances in many other insects, as butter- 
flies and beetles, that are normally non-migratory. 
The reasons we can only surmise ; but aside from 
those of hunger, etc., previously suggested, the an- 
noyance and inconvenience to which the females, while 
attempting to oviposit, have to submit from their com- 
panions, under conditions of excessive increase, may 
have something to do with it. But mere increase in 
numbers would not give to species like femur -ruhruni 
and differ entialisy which are ordinarily heavy-bodied 
and short winged, the power of extended flight ; and 
there is little doubt, in my mind, that the same excep- 
tionally hot, dry seasons which i^ermit this undue multi- 
plication also modify the individuals, and cause a decrease 
in bulk and increase in wing-power. The facts support 
this view, for the flying specimens of diff'erentialis sent to 
Prof. Thomas had, as he writes me, "the body lighter 
and the wings longer, and some of that peculiar fierce ai> 
pearance belonging to migrating specimens ; " and I have 
specimens from Kansas and Minnesota which differ so 
much in these respects from the more normal specimens as 
found at St. Louis in ordinary seasons, that they can scarcely 
be recognized as the same species. The casual observer 
knows how thoroughly plants are modified in size and 
habit by season and condition : the same holds true of in- 
sects, and more particularly in certain groups. 

Given that over the vast prairie region of Central Illi- 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 201 

nois, the insects were as thick as I found them in many 
fields around St. Louis, where every step would cause two 
or three hundred to rise ; and let this migratory instinct 
be developed, and the mystery of the Illinois flights van- 
ishes. They are exceptional local phenomena : they are 
neither so strong nor so long sustained as those of the 
Rocky Mountain species ; nor are they in any sense to be 
so much dreaded. 

In short, whenever the climate and conditions in the 
Mississippi Valley approach those existing in the native 
home of the Rocky Mountain Locust, some of our native 
species, and especially those nearest akin to it, also ap- 
proach it in habit. If the climate of Illinois and Mis- 
souri were to permanently change in that direction, these 
species would become permanently modified ; but as there 
is no immediate danger of such a contingency, the Rocky 
Mountain Locust is the only species, here considered, that 
can properly lay claim to the migratory habit. 

LOCUST FLIGHTS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

To the unscientific mind there are few things more dif- 
ficult of apprehension than that species, whether of plants 
or animals, should be limited in geographical range to 
areas not separated from the rest of the country by any 
very marked barriers, or by visible demarcations. Yet such 
is the fact, known to every naturalist ; and the geograph- 
ical distribution of species forms at once one of the most 
interesting and one of the most important studies in natural 
history. Some species have a very limited, others a very 
wide range ; and while in the course of time — in the lapse 
of centuries or ages — the limits have altered in the jiast 
and will alter in the future, they are, for all practical pur- 
poses, permanent in present time. These limits may in 
fact, lor the purpose of illustration, be likened to those 



202 The Rocky Mountain Locitst. 

which sepai-ate different nations. Though frequently 
divided by purely imaginary lines, the nations of Europe, 
with their peculiar customs and languages, are well defined. 
Along the borders where two nations join, there is some- 
times more or less commingling ; at other times the line 
of demarkation is abrupt ; and in no case could emigrants 
from the one, long perpetuate their peculiarities unchanged 
in the midst of the other. Yet in the battle of nations, 
the lines have changed, and the map of Euro^^e has often 
been remodeled. So it is with species. On the borders 
of the areas not abi-uptly defined, to which species are 
limited, there is more or less modification from the typical 
characters and habits ; while in the struggle of species 
for supremacy, the limits may vary in the course of time. 
The difference is, that the boundaries of nations result 
from human rather than from natural agencies, while those 
of species result chiefly from the latter, and are therefore 
more permanent. These remarks apply of course to 
species in a natural state, and where their range is unin- 
fluenced either directly or indirectly by civilized man. 

I found some difliculty, at the Conference of Governors 
at Omaha to consider the locust problem, in satisfying 
those present that the Rocky Mountain Locust could not 
permanently thrive in the country indicated by green in 
Plate I. of this work, and that there was no danger of its 
ever extending so as to do serious damage east of a line 
drawn a little west of the center of Iowa. They could 
not see what there was to prevent the pest from overrun- 
ning the whole country, and thought that Congress should 
be appealed to, not only on behalf of the country that 
has suflered from its ravages, but on behalf, also, of the 
whole country that is threatened thereby. 

Having already discussed the native home of the species, 
and the conditions which prevent its permanent settlement 



Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 203 

in the country to which it is not native, it is unnecessary 
here to go into detail on these points. Briefly, the species 
is at home and can come to perfection only in the high 
and dry regions of the Noi'thwest, where the winters are 
long and cold and the summers short ; and whenever it 
migrates and oversweeps the country to the South or 
Southeast, in which it is not indigenous, the changed con- 
ditions are such that the first generation hatched out in 
that (to it) unnatural climate, either forsakes it on the 
wing or perishes from debility, disease and general deteri- 
oration. On the soundness of this conclusion depends 
the future welfare of most of the more fertile States be- 
tween the Mississippi and the mountains, and science, as 
well as past experience, shows it to be sound. Upon this 
hypothesis the people of nearly the whole country, so 
scourged during the past few years, may console them- 
selves that the evil is but temporary : they may have 
to fight their tiny foe most desperately for a short time, 
but they nevertheless have the assurance that even if he 
prove master of the field, he will vacate in time to, in 
all probability, allow of good crops of some of the staples, 
and that he may not return again for years. On the 
other hypothesis — for which there is only apparent, and 
no real reason — ruin stares them inevitably in the face. 

The causes which limit the eastward flight of the winged 
swarms that come fi'om the Northwest are, with the ma- 
jority of people, still more difficult to appreciate ; for 
most persons can see no reason why a swarm that over- 
runs the western portions of Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri, 
should not extend to the eastern borders of the same 
States, or into Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and eastward. 
Having previously considered the more occult climatic 
influences that bear on the belief that they never will, I 
need only state here, that the principal arguments rest in 



204 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

the facts that — 1st, the power of flight of any insect that 
has a limited winged existence, must somewhere find a 
limit ; ^d, that all past experience has shown that Calop- 
tenus spretus has never extended, in a genei'al way, beyond 
the limit indicated, and that as long as the present average 
conditions of wind and climate and of timber-distribution 
prevail, it is reasonable to suppose that it never will. 

One of the principal difficulties in the way of a proper 
apprehension of the facts, is found in the failure, in the 
popular mind, to discriminate between species. The ordi- 
nary newspaper writer talks of the grasshopper, or the 
locust, as though all over the country and all over the 
world there was but one and the same species. One of 
the Governors present at the Conference referred to, was 
at first fully of the belief that our Rocky Mountain pest 
came all the way from Asia. In the case of this destruc- 
tive species, even some entomologists have added to the 
difliculty by erroneously claiming that it is common all 
over the country to the Atlantic ocean. 

The above thoughts were suggested by the following 
reports, that met my eye, in the Cincinnati Gazette of the 
24th of October, 1876, from Dayton and Hamilton, re- 
spectively, in the State of Ohio: 

The advent of Kansas grasshoppers, over Sunday and until 
Monday evening, in great numbers throughout the city, is a most 
remarkable incident. Thej^ were found early Sunday morning, 
and left, as suddenly as they came, on Monday eveuiug. 

A shower of mammoth grasshoppers came down upon our town 
and vicinity on Saturday night. We have never seen such large 
ones before, and we understand from old citizens, that they are 
entire strangers in this part of the country. We saw a boy have a 
string tied to two of them (which were as long as a man's finger) 
trying to drive them, and he succeeded pretty well. 

A flock of grasshoppers alighted in Hamilton abput 11 o'clock 
on Saturday night, from the northwest. Those that were not 
drowned in the river or killed by the heavy rain, were probably 
gobbled up before Sunday night by the chickens. 



Locust Re varies East of the Mississippi. 205 

Such reports as these very naturally confirm the unsci- 
entific in the idea that the locust plague of the West, or 
so-called " Kansas grasshopper," has overstepped the limits 
entomology ascribes to it, and is upsetting the conclusions 
which I have come to. The same swarm passed over 
Oxford in the same State, in a southwesterly direction, 
and fortunately that veteran and well-known apiarian, the 
Rev. L, L. Langstroth, who has not forgotten to be a close 
observer, had specimens sent to me. They proved to be 
the American Acridium already figured and described on 
page 101, (Fig. 15). It has a wide range, hibernates in 
the winged condition, and not only difiers in size and 
habits from the Rocky Mountain Locust, but entomologi- 
cally is as widely separated from it as a sheep is from a 
cow. It is a sjDCcies common over the country every year, 
and during exceptional years becomes excessively numer- 
ous and acquires the migratory habit, its wings being long 
and well adapted to flying. As I learn from Dr. S. Miller, 
of Franklin, it passed in swarms over part of Johnson 
county, Missouri, late in September ; and it was every- 
where abundant in 1876. 

The following extracts from letters of correspondents 
refer to this species : 

I send you by Mr. Shaw a small package containing specimens 
of locusts, destructive about Chattanooga and in all Eastern Ten- 
nessee. They strike me as nearly allied to the Rocky Mountain 
Locust; fly with the same nnise and shine of wings, in large shoals, 
but are larger. — [Dr. G. Engelmann, Warm Springs, N. C, Aug. 29, 
187G. 

We have a locust here which has in some places occurred in 
considerable numbers, and some people think it the same as the 
one which has produced so much damage in the West. This I 
dimbt, as it is evidently a native species. — [E. M. Pendleton, Prof, 
of Agriculture, Univ. of Ga., Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 14, 1876. 

The American Acridium visited us on the night of November 
21, (Saturday.) A rain fell during the night. Cambridge City, 
Indiana, was also visited by them on the same niglit. — [Herschel I. 
Fisher, Eastham College, Richmond, lud. 



206 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



Toward the end of July the unfledged insects did an 
immense amount of damage to the cotton and other crops 
of Georgia and South Carolina. The papers were full of 
graphic accounts of their destruction, and not only did 
editors very generally take for granted that they had to do 
with the western spretus, but Mr. T. P. Janes, Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture for Georgia, in his circular No. 27, 
supposed they were the same. Specimens which he subse- 
quently sent me, however, at once revealed their true 
character. 

The damage done by some of the more common locusts 
that occur over the country, is, let me repeat, sometimes 
very great, esi^ecially during hot, dry years. In some of 
the New England States their ravages have, in restricted 
localities, fairly equaled those of the voracious sj)retus of 
the West. But while a few of them, in exceptional circum- 
stances, develop the migratory habit, they never have, and 
in all probability never will, compare with Oalojitenus 
spretus in the vastness of its migrations and in its immense 
power for injury over extensive areas. 

Whenever we hear of locust flights east of the Missis- 
sippi, we may rest satisfied that they are not of our Rocky 
Mountain pest, and are comparatively harmless. 



CHAPTER X 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

NOMENCLATURE. 

Regarding the popular name of our insect, there is great 
lack of uniformity in the terms by which it is designated, 
and many of my readers, who have been accustomed to 
hearing these insects very generally called " grasshoppers," 
will doubtless wonder why I have not followed common 
usage. In America, the terra " Grasshopper " is very gen- 
erally employed for these insects, but should be abandoned 
for that of " Locust," which is applied to similar species in 
nearly all other parts of the world, the " locusts " of Scrip- 
ture being very closely allied species. As I have already 
said (6th Mo. Ent. Rep., p. 153, note) : 

It is to be regretted that American entomological writers do not 
more strictly follow Harris in conforining to the English custom of 
calling these insects — with short antennse and stridulating by means 
of the stout hind legs — by the popular term of " locusts ;" this 
being in keeping with ancient usage. The term "grasshopper" 
would then be confined to the long-horned and long-legged, green 
group, stridulating solely with the wings, in which the species are 
more solitary and never congregate in Bwarms, and in which the 
female is invariably provided with a sword or cimiter-shaped ovi- 
positor ; while the term Katydid could be used to designaie the few 
larger, tree-inhabiting speciesof .the group, so designated by Harris. 
Where the habit of calling the Cicada " Locust," and the "Locust" 
of ancient usage "Grasshopper," is so inveterate as in this country, 
It is not easy to change it ; but it seems to me that the change is 
desirable, and if popular authors would only continue the example 
of Harris, the chance would come about with the greater dissemi- 
nation of entumological information. 

Almost every entomological -author has been under the 
necessity, at one time or another, of insisting that the 
" Grasshopper " of this country is the " Locust " of Europe 

( 207 ) 




208 The Bocky Mountain Locust. 

and of antiquity ; or of endeavoring to clear up the con- 
fusion which results fi-om the popular application of this 
last term to the Periodical Cicada or Harvest-fly — an 
insect (Fig. 39) which dwells, in its early life, under 
[Fig. 39.] ground, and feeds by sucking the sap of 
trees, and which is no more capable, like the 
true locust, of devastating our grain fields 
than a calf is of killing and devouring our 
sheep. Yet the ceaseless preaching about 
the popular misapi^lication of these terms 
will avail nothing so long as the popular 
error is encouraged by the preachers them- 
selves adopting the misapplication. The 
popular names of a country should be 
respected as much as possible, especially for 
obiects peculiar to the country, and I would 

Cicada, or mis- , , , , , ,, n 

called locust: with be the last to try and change them tor 

one wins; removed, . . , i ^ • ^i • • ^ 

so us to show the trivial rcasons; but when, as in this instance, 

beak and ovipos- , , „ . • • ^i i i 

iter. the name used lor centuries in the older 

countries, and become familiar as household words through 
the widely disseminated Scriptures, is supplanted by a new 
one, and transferred to an entirely difierent insect, there 
is no excuse for perpetuating the popular error. 

We may talk of sliij)ping a car-load, and of the suit's 
rising ^ixovcL now till doomsday; and, though, to the intelli- 
gent and hypercritical mind the expressions will ever savor 
of incorrectness, no one is foolfsh enough to try and reform 
them, because they are universal, wherever the English 
language is spoken. Change in universal and long estab- 
lished customs is neither possible, as a rule, nor advisable; 
and it is doubtful if any reform could be brought about in 
our present Gregorian calendar, for instance, even if the 
advantage of regulating the divisions of the year by the 
astronomical conditions of the earth's orbit could be fully 



General Considerations. 209 

established. But in a case like that of the use of the 
terms Locust and Grasshopper, the former, as applied to 
our Rocky Moiintain plague and its allies, has every claim 
to favor, not only because of its having been longer used, 
and of its now being more universally used than the latter; 
but because it has a definite meaning and agrees with the 
old systematic name of the family to which the species 
belongs ; while the term " grasshopper " is most loosely 
applied to almost every field insect that hops. The term 
locust is, in fact, supposed by many to be derived from the 
Latin words /ocr^s Ms«?<s, signifying a burnt place, and refer- 
ring to the desolation, as if by fire, which these insects 
cause. 

The trivial terms "Colorado," " Red-legged," and " Hate- 
ful" have been applied to the species by various writers; 
but the name " Rocky Mountain Locust," which I have 
employed, is expressive of the insect's habitat and least 
open to objection. 

Regarding the scientific name of our insect, it is only 
necessary to add, in addition to what has already been said, 
that it belongs to the modern genus Melano23lus of Still, 
but just as this author's subdivisions of certain genera in 
Coleoptera are not accepted or recognized by many of our 
best coleopterists, so Melanojylus is not considered as of 
generic value by some of our best orthopterists ; for which 
reason I have used the better known and well established 
genus Caloptemis. The specific name spretus (meaning 
despised) indicates that, as a species, it was long over- 
looked by entomologists, and confounded with feniur- 
rubrum. 

PRAIRIE KIKi:S vs. LOCUST RAVAGES. 

The statement has been made, and advocated with con- 
siderable ingenuity, that the visitations of the Rocky 
14 



210 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



Moiintain Locust are due to the practice of burning oif 
the dry grass of our Western prairies. All the arguments 
in this direction, however plausible at first sight, will not 
bear the test of close scrutiny. The theory is that burning 
the grass is the occasion of drouth, and that locusts come 
only in drouthy seasons. One writer in the Katuas Fanner 
for Sept. 23d, 1874, even asserts that "the unbroken 
succession of curses " that have afilicted that State, " all 
spring from the one first grand cause, the burning of the 
prairie grasses," and, after explaining that hot, scorching 
winds and simoons originate in desert countries, he avers 
that " it matters not whether the country is an original 
desert, or whether it is made so by the action of our 
Western prairie fires. For all present purposes the two 
are reduced to a common level and produce a common 
result — drouth, hot winds and locusts." 

The reason given why the locusts can come only in 
drouthy seasons, is, that they can not fly in a moist 
atmosphere, and the facts that they do not readily fly 
early in the morning, and that the farther east you go, or, 
in othtfr words, the more moist the atmosphere becomes, 
the insects diminish in number and consequent power for 
liarm. 

As such views are by no means uncommon in the West, 
I will give my several reasons for believing that there is 
110 connection whatever between prairie fires and locust 
ravages. 

1. It is by no means proved that the simoons which 
occasionally sweep over our Western States and Territories 
have their origin in any part of that vast prairie country. 
Some of the more local of these hot, dry winds may origi- 
nate or acquire their peculiarly high temperature on the 
mauvaises terres of Wyoming or the table lands of Arizona 
and Mexico; but the more general simoons most probably 



Oeneral Considerations. 211 



have their origin at a far greater distance from us, viz., in 
the tropics. These simoons in Missouri always blow from 
the southwest, in Kansas from south-southwest, and in 
Eastern Colorado south, or a few points east of south; 
and their injurious and scorching effects are not infre- 
quently felt before the frost in Kansas and the country to 
the west is fairly out of the ground. 

2. It is well known that the buffalo grass ranges over a 
vast extent of our Western plains, and that it does not 
furnish a very dense or thorough covering, even when 
unburned, and assists very little in retaining moisture or 
preventing evaporation. 

.3. My own observations for the past seventeen years in 
this Western prairie country lead me to the conclusion 
that fires more often succeed than precede drouth, and that 
they may more justly be looked upon as a result than as a 
cause of excessive dry weather; and the prevailing belief 
that large conflagrations or extensive fires are conducive 
to rain, bears on this point. 

4. Whenever grass is burned during the growing 
season, the old and drier blade is soon succeeded by a green 
and succulent one, which has far greater power to attract 
and retain moisture; while if burned in winter time the 
evaporation from the soil can be thereby but slightly 
affected, because of the weakened power of the sun, and 
the snows which usually cover and protect. 

5. Drouths are by no means confined to that portion of 
the country subject to the locust invasions. 

6. The reason why locusts are more sluggish and less 
inclined to fly at morn than at noon is not so much a ques- 
tion of the comparative density of the atmosphere as of 
the difference in temperature. All diurnal insects are 
sluggish in the cool of the morning, and their activity 
increases with the rising of the thermometer; and flight, 



212 Tlie Roclqi Mountain Locust. 



whether of bird or insect, is, I conceive, easier, aeteris 
paribus, in a dense than in an attenuated atmosphere. 

7. As the Rocky Mountain Locust multiplies contigu- 
ously in the Rocky Mountain region, its descent into the 
plains to the east where it can not permanently thrive, 
can not well be aflected by the burning of the grass on those 
plains. 

From what has preceded I think we may safely conclude 
that the non-burning of the prairies will have no effect in 
preventing locust injuries, but that, on the contrary, as 
shown in Chapter VIII, the judicious burning of such 
prairies at the proper time is most beneficial and highly to 
be commended. 

Indeed, there is only one way in which there can be any 
real connection between the burning of prairies and the 
ravages of the Rocky Mountain Locust, and that connec- 
tion is through the remote past, and altogether beyond our 
present controL In the report of the Chief Signal Officer 
to the War Department for 1872, will be found an inter- 
esting account of the great fires of 1871 in the North- 
west, in which the late Prof. J. A. Lapham, of Milwaukee, 
Wis., maintains that our extensive Western prairies and 
plains owe their existence and origin to the agency of fire. 
These fires, encouraged by drouth, and either kindled by 
accident or intention, have swept over the country for 
ages, and while they leave the roots of the grass uninjured, 
they destroy the germs of most other plants, including 
forest trees; and Mr. Lapham pictures to himself a long- 
past struggle between forest and prairie, in which the 
latter, by the assistance of the Fire King, has gained and 
held the vantage ground. 

While I do not agree with Prof, Lapham that the 
remote cause of our prairies can be attributed to fire, yet 
no one can doubt its agency at the present time in main- 



General Considerations. 218 

taining these prairies and preventing timber growth in 
the more humid portions of the great prairie region. 
But on Prof. Lapham's hypothesis there would naturally 
be a connection in the past between fires and locusts; for 
if Avathout fires this whole prairie region had been tim- 
bered, the locusts, which are essentially insects of the 
plains and prairies, could never have become so prodig- 
iously abundant and injurious. On such a hypothesis alone 
can I see any possible connection between prairie fires and 
locust invasions, and, however much truth there may be in 
the hypothesis, the fact remains that there is no present 
connection between the two phenomena. 

FASTING AND PRAYER. 

During great calamities, there has always been, and per- 
haps always will be, on the part of people of any religion 
whatsoever, a tendency to prayer and supplication, that 
Divine aid may come to the relief of the afiiicted. This ten- 
dency is at no time more manifest than during locust visita- 
tions. It was illustrated in the passage of a resolution at the 
Omaha Conference, in 1876, praying the Supreme Being 
to avert future injury, and it has found expression in reso- 
lutions by religious sects and proclamations by State repre- 
sentatives, who doubtless receive from their constituency, 
during times of locust trouble, numerous petitions asking 
for such action. 

The general interest awakened in the various endeavors 
to aid the sufferers in Missouri, in 1875, was in no small 
degree due to the active sympathy and the prompt attention 
given to the subject by Governor C. H. Hardin. About 
the middle of May he issued the following proclamation : 

Whereas, owing to the failures and losses of crops, much suffer- 
ing has been endured bj- many of our people during the past few 
months, and similar calamities are impending upon larger commu- 



214 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 



nities, and may possiblv extend to the whole State, and if not abated 
will eventuate in sore distress and famine ; 

Wherefore, be it known that the 3d day of June proximo is here- 
by appointed and set apart as a day of fasting and prayer, tliat 
Almighty God may be invoked to remove froui our midst those 
impending calamities, and to grant instead the blessings of abun- 
dance and plenty ; and the people and all the officers of the State 
are herel)y requested to desist, during that day, from their usual 
employments, and to assemble at their places of worship for humble 
and devout prayer, and to otherwise observe the day as one of fast- 
ing and prayer. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set mv hand, and caused 
the great seal of the State of Missouri to be affixed, in the city of 
Jefferson, this 17th day of May, 1875. 

C.H.. HARDIN. 
By the Governor : 

M. K. McGrath, Secretary of State. 

This proclamation naturally drew forth a large amount 
of comment, and the Governor was ridiculed or praised 
according as fancy inspired newspaper men. As I was 
myself taken to task by no less a personage than the Rev- 
erend Doctor W. Pope Yeaman, of the Third Baptist 
Church of St. Louis, for supposed ridicule, and for taking 
*' unnecessary pains to sneer at Providence," it may be as 
well to state that the only sentiment I ever expressed, 
either by word of mouth or by pen, as to the proclama- 
tion, is contained in an article j^ublished in the St. Louis 
Globe of May 19, 1875, where I wrote : 

I deeply and sincerely appreciate the sympathy which our wor- 
thy Governor manifests for the suffering people of our western 
counties, through the proclamation whicli sets apart the 3d of June 
as a day of fnsting and prayer that the great Author of our being 
may be invoked to remove impendmg calamities. Yet, without 
discussing the question as to the efficacy of prayer in affecting the 
pliysical world, no one will for a moment doubt that the supplica- 
tions of the people will more surely be granted if accompanied by 
well-directed, energetic work. When, in 1853, Lord Palmerston 
was besought by the Scotch Presbyterians to appoint a day for 
national fasting, humiliation and prayer, that the cholera might be 
averted, he suggested that it would be more beneficial to feed the 
poor, cleanse the cesspools, ventilate the houses and remove the 
causes and sources of contagion, which, if allowed to remain, wdl 
infallibly breed pestilence, " in spite of all the prayers and fastings 



General Considerations. 215 

of a united but inactive nation." "We are commanded by the best 
authority to prove our faith by our worlt. For my part, I -would 
like to see the prayers of the people take on the substantial form of 
collections, made in the churches throughout the State, for the 
benefit of the suflerers, and distributed by organized authority ; or, 
what would be still better, the State authorities, if it is in Iheir 
power, should ofter a premium for every bushel of young locusts 
destroyed. In this way the more destitute of the people in the 
infested districts would have a strong incentive to destroy the young 
locusts, and thus avert future injury, and at the same time furnish 
the means of earning a liviutr until the danger is past. The locusts 
thus collected and destroyed could be fed to poultry and hogs, 
buried as manure, or dried, pulverized and sold for the same 
purpose. 

Though I may not have overmuch piety and faith my- 
self, I at least know how to respect those qualities in 
others, and however much I believe that the insect which 
was the remote cause of Dr. Teaman's sermon, is governed 
by natural laws, which should guide us in understanding 
and overcoming it, the reverend gentleman forgot his call- 
ing, and made himself ridiculous, in charging, for such 
reasons, that I took pains to " sneer at Providence." 

As the most effective and substantial method of observ- 
ing the day of fasting and prayer, and as a result of the 
suggestion above quoted, Gov. Ilardin, on the 24th of May, 
wisely issued a second proclamation, urging the benevo- 
lent and charitable, who might assemble on the 3d of June 
in public worship, and felt so disposed, to make contribu- 
tions and forward the same to certain parties who would 
attend to the proper disbursement of the same. 

Early in April, I favored the Governor with the very 
first copy that came from the bii,dery, of my Seventh Re- 
port, in which it was foretold that the locusts would begin 
to leave the State early in June. Whether or not this had 
anything to do with the date fixed upon in the proclama- 
tion, certain it is that tho date was most opportune ; for 
the insects began to leave about that time, and that por- 
tion of the community which places faith in the efficacy 



216 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



of prayer doubtless had their faith greatly strengthened 
by the fact. 

NOT A DIVINE VISITATION. 

There are those, among both the clergy and the laity, wlio 
deem a locust visitation an expression of Divine wrath, for 
the sin and corrujjtion of the people — a chastisement of tlie 
Lord. They claim that the " wickedness, fraud, falsehood 
and corruption " which, as they assert, '* abound in every 
department of society," are at the bottom of it. They 
consider it impious to attempt to avert the evil. These 
opinions were boldly proclaimed in 1875 by writers in some 
of our prominent newspapers. The expression of such 
opinions is a downright insult to the hard-working, indus- 
trious and suffering farmers of the Western country, who 
certainly deserve no more to be thus visited by Divine 
wrath than the people of other parts of the State and 
country. Persons who promulgate such views are little 
removed in intelligence from the poor crack-brained negress 
whom I saw in the streets of Warrensburg shouting and 
imploring the people not to kill a locust, since God Almighty 
had sent them ; or from the poor deluded Arabs who make 
no effort to destroy the locusts which they hold in super- 
stitious reverence. It is not surprising that people are yet 
found who hold such views; for no great calamity ever befell 
a country which was not attributed, by certain fanatics, to 
Divine wrath; but it is surprising that, in this enlightened 
day, such persons can find circulation for their vagaries in 
the columns of some of our widely circulating and influ- 
ential journals. 

INFLUENCE OF THE WIND IN DETERMINING THE OOUKSE OF 
LOCUST SWAKMS. 

That excessive multiplication aud hunger are the prin- 
cipal causes of migration from the native home of the 



General Considerations. 217 



species, and that the prevailing winds determine the course 
therefrom, I have endeavored to show in Chapter III. That 
all these influences very largely determine the return 
migration when the insects hatch out in the Mississippi 
Valley is also doubtless true ; and it is interesting to note 
in this connection that, according to observations, covei'ing 
a period of from two to five years, furnished by General 
Myer, at the request of Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr.,* the pre- 
vailing winds in May and June, within the region subject 
to invasion, are from the Gulf of Mexico, or from the south- 
east and south, i. e., in exactly the opposite direction from 
which they blow later in the season. Yet, to assume that the 
migrations are solely dependent for direction on the winds 
would be incorrectj ae there is cumulative evidence that 
when once the migration has commenced, adverse winds 
only retard, but do not materially change its course. I 
have known the insects in their course northwestwardly to 
remain on the ground for five consecutive days, the while 
the wind was opposing them, and then to rise and pass on 
as soon as it died away or blew again from the south. 

LOCUSTS AS FOOD FOR MAN. 

Our relish or disrelish of certain animals for food are 
very much matters of habit, or fashion ; for we esteem 
many things to-day which our forefathers considered either 
poisonous or repulsive. There is nothing very attractive 
about such cold-blooded animals as turtles, frogs, oysters, 
clams, crabs, lobsters, prawns, periwinkles, snails, shrimps, 
mussels, quahaugs or scallops, until we have become accus- 
tomed to them; and what is there about a dish of locusts, 
well served up, more repulsive than about a lot of shrimps? 
for the former feed on green vegetation and are more 

*" The Destructive Locust of the West," Am. Naturalist, Vol. XI, p. 27. 



218 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



cleanly than either pigs or chickens. Who can doubt but 
that the French during the late investment of Paris would 
have looked upon a swarm of these locusts as a manna- like 
blessing from heaven, and would have much preferred them 
to stewed rat? And why should the people of the West, 
when rendered destitute and foodless by these insects, not 
make the best of the circumstances, and guard against fam- 
ine by utilizing them as food ? Having, in 1875, personally 
tested them for this purpose, I will here record the result 
very much as originally given to the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting for that 
year. 

In the few words I have to communicate under this head^ 
it is not my purpose to inflict a long dissertation on edible 
insects. The subject has been sufliciently treated of by 
various authors, and especially by Kirby and Spence in 
their admirable Introduction to Entomology ; while Mr. 
W. R. Gerard has brought together most of the facts in a 
paper entitled *' Entomophagy," read before the Pough- 
keepsie Society of Natural History. It is my desire, 
rather, to demonstrate the availability of locusts as food 
for man, and their value, as such, whenever, as not infre- 
quently happens, they deprive him of all other sources of 
nourishment. 

With the exception of locusts, most other insects that 
have been used as food for man, are obtained in small 
quantities, and their use is more a matter of curiosity than 
of interest. They have been employed either by excep- 
tional individuals with perverted tastes, or else as dainty 
tit-bits to tickle some abnormal and epicurean palate. Not 
so with locusts, which have, from time immemorial, formed 
a staple article of diet with many peoples, and are used 
to-day in large quantities in many parts of the globe. 

Any one at all familiar with the treasures on exhibition 



General Considerations. 219 

at the British Museum, must have noticed among its 
Nineveh sculptures, one in which are represented men 
carrying different kinds of meat to some festival, and 
among them some who carry long sticks to which are tied 
locusts — thus indicating that in those early days, repre- 
sented by the sculpture, locusts were sufficiently esteemed 
to make part of a public feast. They are counted among 
the " clean meats " in Leviticus (xi, 22), and are referred 
to in other parts of the Bible, as food for man. In most 
parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, subject to locust ravages, 
these insects have been, and are yet, extensively used as 
food. Herodotus mentions a tribe of Ethiopians "which 
fed on locusts which came in swarms from the southern 
and unknown districts," and Livingstone has made us 
familiar with the fact that the locust-feeding custom pre- 
vails among many African tribes. Indeed, some tribes 
have been called Acridophagi, from the almost exclusive 
preference they give to this diet. We have it from Pliny 
that locusts were in high esteem among the Parthians, and 
the records of their use in ancient times, as food, in South- 
ern Europe and Asia, are abundant. This use continues 
in those parts of the world to the present day. 

In Morocco (as I am informed by Mr. Trovey Blackmore, 
of London, who has spent some time in that country) they 
do more or less damage every year, and are used exten- 
sively for food whenever they so abound as to diminish the 
ordinary food-supply ; while they are habitually roasted 
for eating and brought into Tangier and other towns by 
the country people and sold in the market places and on 
the streets. The Jews, who form a large proportion of 
the population, collect the females only for this purpose — 
having an idea that the male is unclean, but that under 
the body of the female there are some Hebrew characters 
which make them lawful food. In reality there are, under 



220 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

the thorax, certain dark markings — the species used being 
the Acridium perigrinum, which is so injurious to 
crops. Radoszkowski, President of the Russian Ento- 
mological Society, tells me that they are also, to this day, 
extensively used as food in Southern Russia ; while many 
of our North American Indian tribes, and notably the 
Snake and Digger Indians of California, are known to 
feed upon them. No further evidence need be cited to 
prove the present extensive use of these insects as articles 
of food. Let us then briefly consider the nature of this 
locust food, and the different methods of preparing it. 

The records show us that in ancient times these insects 
were cooked in a variety of ways. CEdipoda migratoria 
and Acridium perigri7mm, which are the more common 
devastating locusts of the " Old World," are both of large 
size, and they are generally prepared by first detaching the 
legs and wings. The bodies are then boiled, roasted, stewed, 
fried or broiled. The Romans are said to have used them 
by carefully roasting them to a bright golden yellow. At 
the present day, in most parts of Africa, and especially in 
Russia, they are either salted or smoked like red herrings. 
Chenier, in his account of the Empire of Morocco (Lon- 
don, 1788), says that thus cured, they are brought into the 
market in prodigious quantities, but that they have " an 
oily and rancid taste, which habit only can render agree- 
able." The Moors use them, to the present day, in the 
manner described by Jackson in his " Travels in Morocco," 
viz., by first boiling and then frying them ; but the Jews, 
in that country — more provident than the Moors — salt 
them and keep them for using with the dish called Dq/ina, 
which forms the Saturday's dinner of the Jewish popula- 
tion. The dish is made by placing meat, fisli, eggs, toma- 
toes — in fact, almost anything edible — in a jar, which is 
placed in the oven on Friday night, and taken out hot on 



General Considerations. 221 

the Sabbath, so that the people get a hot meal without the 
sin of lighting a fire on that day. In the Abb<j Godard's 
" Description et Ilistoire de Maroc'''' (Paris, 1860), he tells 
us that " they are placed in bags, salted, and either baked 
or boiled. They are then dried on the terraced roofs of 
the houses. Fried in oil they are not bad." Some of our 
Indians collect locusts by lighting fires in the direct path 
of the devouring swarms. In roasting, the wings and legs 
crisp up and are separated ; the bodies are then eaten fresh 
or dried in hot ashes and put away for future use. Our 
Digger Indians roast them, and grind or pound them to a 
kind of flour, which they mix with pounded acorns, or 
with difierent kinds of berries, make into cakes and dry in 
the sun for future use. 

The species employed by the ancients were doubtless the 
same as those employed at the present day in the East, 
viz., the two already mentioned, and, to a less degree, the 
smaller Caloptemis Italicus. We have no records of any 
extended use of our own Rocky Mountain species {Calop- 
tenus spretus), unless — which is not improbable — the 
species employed by the Indians on the Pacific coast 
should prove to be the same, or a geographical race of the 
same. 

It had long been a desire with me to test the value of 
this species (spretus) as food, and I did not lose the oppor- 
tunity to gratify that desire, which the recent locust inva- 
sions into some of the Mississippi Valley States ofFei-ed. I 
knew well enough that the attempt would provoke to ridi- 
cule and mirth, or even disgust, the vast majority of our 
people, unaccustomed to anything of the sort, and associ- 
ating with the word insect or "bug" everything horrid 
and repulsive. Yet I was governed by weightier reasons 
than mere curiosity ; for many a family in Kansas and 
Nebraska was in 1 874: brought to the brink of the grave by 



222 Tlie. BocJcy Mountain Locust. 



sheer lack of food, while the St. Louis papers reported 
eases of actual death from starvation in some sections of 
Missouri, where the insects abounded and ate up every 
green thing in the spring of 1875. 

Whenever the occasion presented, I partook of locusts 
prepared in different ways, and, one day, ate of no other 
kind of food, and must have consumed, in one way and 
another, the substance of several thousand half-grown 
locusts. Commencing the experiments with some misgiv- 
ings, and fully expecting to have to overcome disagreeable 
flavor, I was soon most agreeably surprised to find that the 
insects were quite palatable, in whatever way prepared. 
The flavor of the raw locust is most strong and disagree- 
able, but that of the cooked insects is agreeable, and suffi- 
ciently mild to be easily neutralized by anything with 
which they may be mixed, and to admit of easy disguise, 
according to taste or fancy. But the great point I would 
make in their favor is, that they need no elaborate prep- 
aration or seasoning, and that they really require no dis- 
guise, and herein lies their value in exceptional emergen- 
cies ; for when people are driven to the point of starvation 
by these ravenous pests, it follows that all other food is 
either very scarce or unattainable. A broth, made by 
boiling the unfledged Calopteni for two hours in the proper 
quantity of water, and seasoned with nothing in the world 
but pepper and salt, is quite palatable, and can scarcely be 
distinguished from beef broth, though it has a slight flavor 
peculiar to it, and not easily described. The addition of a 
little butter improves it, and the flavor can, of course, be 
modified with mint, sage and other spices, ad libitum. 
Fried or roasted in nothing but their own oil, with the 
addition of a little salt, and they are by no means unpleas- 
ant .eating, and have quite a nutty flavor. In fact, it is a 
flavor, like most peculiar and not unpleasant flavors, that 



General Considerations. 223 



one can soon learn to get fond of. Prepared in this man- 
ner, ground and compressed, they would doubtless keep 
for a long time. Yet their consumption in large quanti- 
ties in this form would not, I think, prove as wholesome as 
Avhen made into soup or broth ; for I found the chitinous 
covering and the corneous parts — especially the spines on 
the tibiae — dry and chippy, and somewhat irritating to the 
throat. This objection would not apply with the same 
force to the mature individuals, especially of larger spe- 
cies, where the heads, legs and wings are carefully separ- 
ated before cooking ; and, in fact, some of the mature 
insects prepared in this way, then boiled and afterward 
stewed with a few vegetables and a little butter, pepper, 
salt and vinegar, made an excellent fricassee. 

Lest it be presumed that these opinions result from an 
unnatural palate, or from mere individual taste, let me add 
that I took pains to get the opinions of many other persons. 
Indeed, I shall not soon forget the experience of my first culi- 
nary effort in this line — so fraught with fun and so forcibly 
illustrating the power of example in overcoming prejudice. 
This attempt was made at a hotel. At first it was impos- 
sible to get any assistance from the followers of the ars 
coquinaria. They could not more flatly have refused to 
touch, taste or handle, had it been a question of cooking 
vipers. Nor love nor money could induce them to do 
anything, and in this respect the folks of the kitchen were 
all alike, without distinction of color. There was no other 
resource but to turn cook myself, and, operations once 
commenced, the interest and aid of a brother naturalist 
and two intelligent ladies were soon enlisted. It was most 
amusing to note how, as the rather savory and pleasant odor 
went up from the cooking dishes, the expression of horror 
and disgust gradually vanished from the faces of the curi- 
ous lookers on, and how, at last, the head cook — a stout 



224 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

and jolly negress — took part in the operations ; how, when 
the different dishes were neatly served upon tlie table and 
were freely partaken of with evident relish and many 
expressions of surprise and satisfaction by the ladies and 
gentlemen interested, this same cook was actually induced 
to tiy them and soon grew eloquent in their favor ; how, 
finally, a prominent banker, as also one of the editors of 
the town, joined in the meal. The soup soon vanished, 
and banished silly prejudice ; then cakes with batter 
enough to hold the locusts together disappeared, and were 
pronounced good ; then baked locusts with or without 
condiments ; and when the meal was completed with 
dessert of baked locusts and honey a la John the Baptist, 
the opinion was unanimous that that distinguished prophet 
no longer deserved our sympathy, and that he had not 
fared badly on his diet in the wilderness. Prof. H. H. 
Straight, at the time connected with the Warrensburg 
(Mo.) Normal School, who made some experiments for me 
in this line, wrote: "We boiled them rather slowly fpr 
three or four hours, seasoned the fluid with a little butter, 
salt and pepper, and it made an excellent soup, acUially; 
would like to have it even in prosperous times." Mrs. 
Johonnot, who was at the time an invalid, and Prof. 
Johonnot, the then Principal of the school, pronounced it 
excellent. 

I sent a bushel of the scalded insects to Mr. Jno. Bonnet, 
one of the oldest and best known caterers of St. Louis. 
Master of the mysteries of the cuisine, he made a soup 
which was really delicious, and was so pronounced by 
dozens of prominent St. Louisans who tried it. Shaw, in 
his Travels in Barhary (Oxford, England, 1738), in which 
two pages are devoted to a description of the ravages of 
locusts, mentions that they are sprinkled with salt and 
fried, when they taste like crawfish ; and Mr. Bonnet 



General Co.nsideratlons. 225 

declared that this locust soup reminded him of nothing so 
much as crawfish bisque, which is so highly esteemed by 
connoisseurs. He also declared that he would gladly have 
it on his bill of fare every day if he could get the insects. 
His method of preparation was to boil on a brisk fire, 
having previously seasoned them with salt, pepper and 
grated nutmeg, the whole being occasionally stirred. 
When cooked they are pounded in a mortar with bread 
fried brown, or a puree of rice. They are then replaced 
in the saucepan and thickened to a broth by placing on a 
warm part of the stove, but not allowed to boil. For 
use, the broth is passed through a strainer and a few 
croutons are added. I carried a small box of fried ones 
Avith me to Europe, and they were tasted by numerous 
persons, including the members of the London Entomo- 
logical Society and of the Societe Entoniologique de 
France. Without exception they were pronounced far 
better than was expected, and those fried in their own oil 
with a little salt remained good and fresh for several 
months ; others fried in butter became slightly rancid — a 
fault of the butter. Mr. C. Home, F. Z. S., writing to 
Science Gossi2y about swarms of locusts which visited parts 
of India in 1863, says : "In the evening I had asked two 
gentlemen to dinner and gave them a curry and croquette 
of locusts. They passed for Cabul shrimps, which in flavor 
they A'ery much resembled, but the cook having inadvert- 
ently left a hind leg in a croquette, they were found out, to 
the infinite disgust of one of the party and the amusement 
of the other." 

This testimony as to the past and present use of locusts 
as human food might be multiplied almost indefinitely, and 
I hope I have said enough to prove that the nature of that 
food IS by no means disagreeable. In short, not to waste 
time m further details, I can safely assert, from my own 
15 



226 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

personal experience, that our Rocky Mountain locust is more 
palatable when cooked than some animals that Ave already 
use upon our tables. I mention the species more particu- 
larly, because the flavor will doubtless differ according to 
the species or even according to the nature of the vege- 
tation the insects were nourished on. I have made no 
chemical analysis of this locust food, but that it is highly 
nourishing may be gathered from the fact that all animals 
fed upon the insects thrive when these are abundant ; and 
the further fact that our locust-eating Indians, and all 
other locust-eating people, grow fat upon them. 

Locusts will hardly come into general use for food except 
wliero they are annually abundaiit, and our western farmers 
who occasionally suffer from them will not easily be brought 
to a due appreciation of them for this purpose. Prejudiced 
against them, fighting to overcome them, killing them in 
large quantities, until the stench from their decomposing 
bodies becomes at times most offensive — ihey find little 
that is attractive in the pests. For these reasons, as long 
as other food is attainable, the locust will be apt to bo 
rejected by most persons. Yet the fact remains that they 
do make very good food. When freshly caught in large 
quantities, the mangled mass presents a not very appetiz- 
ing appeai-ance, and emits a rather strong and not over 
pleasant odor; but rinsed and scalded, they turn a brownish 
red, look much more inviting, and give no disagreeable 
smell. 

The experiments here recorded have given rise to many 
sensational newspaper pai'agraphs, and I consider the mat- 
ter of sufficient importance to place the actual facts on 
permanent record. 

Like or dislike of many kinds of food is, let me repeat, 
very much a matter of individual taste or national custom. 
Every nation has some special and favorite dish which the 



Oeneral Considerations. 



227 



people of other nations will scarcely touch, while the very 
animal that is highly esteemed in one part of the country 
is not infrequently rejected in another section as poisonous. 
Prejudice wields a most powerful influence in all our 
actions. It is said that the Irish during the famine of 
1857, would rather starve than eat our corn bread, but on 
the other hand, as we have already seen {ante, p. 35), the 
Mormons in 1855, from necessity, really subsisted on a 
locust diet ; and if what I have here written shall, in the 
future, induce some of our Western people to profit by the 
hint, and avoid suffering or actual starvation, I shall not 
have wi'itten in vain. 



UNNECESSARY ALAR:M CAUSED BY COMPARATIVELY 
LESS SPECIES. 

The sense of apprehension of 
further danger is great in a 
community that has suffered 
severely from any disaster what- 
soever, and locusts which under 
ordinary circumstances would 
attract no attention are quite 
frequently looked upon with 
alarm and suspicion during years 
of visitation by spretus. Mr. 
E. W. Kruze, of Sedalia, Mo., 
sent me, in 1875, a very large, 
short- winged locust found in his 
locality, with an inquiry as to 
its name, and whether there 
was any connection between its 
aj^pearance and the late in- 
vasion of spretus. The same 
species was also sent me from 
the same locality by Mr. Geo. tml clumbt Locust. 



HARM- 




228 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 

Husmann. It is the Brachypeplus inagnus of entomolo- 
gists, and may be popularly called the Clumsy Locust. 
It is one of our largest and clumsiest species, incapable 
of flight, and never doing serious injury. It is common 
on the plains of Western Kansas and Colorado, but was 
never before reported from Missouri. It is prettily 
marked, as in Fig. 40, and occurs in two distinct varieties, 
one in which a bright yellowish-green prevails, and the 
other in which fleshy tints, and pale-brown predominate. 
There can be no connection between its appearance and 
that of spretiis, other than that the exodus of this last 
rendered more conspicuous all large insects of this kind 
that were left behind. 

Reports are often circulated and published during 
winter that " the grasshoppers have appeared," by which 
is meant that the dreaded spretiis is about. The follow- 
ing letter from Dr. B, F. Dunkley, of Dunksburg, 
Pettis county, Mo., received in the Avinter of 18V5-G, will 
show how easily people are misled : 

Inclosed please find some young locusts, just hatched out. We- 
believe them to be the Kocky Mountain Locusts, but scud them to 
you to decide. Please answer. In my report, in answer lo your 
circular, I said that some of the locusts that hatched out late 
and only prew to half the size of otiiers that migrated and left us 
last July, did lay their eggs, for myself and others saw them at it. 
Now I mink these are from the eggs laid by them. If so, will the 
co.d, when it comes, kill them V 

All opinions like those expressed by Mr. Dunkley are 
based on "mistaken identity." The species noticed hop- 
ping about, during the mild weather of January and 
February, are native species that are with us all the time, 
and habitually hibernate in the half-grown, unfledged con- 
dition. The most common of them, and that sent by Mr. 
Dunkley and other correspondents, is the Green-striped 
Locust {Tragocephala viridifasciata,) a very common 



General Considerations. 229 

species, ranging from Maine to Florida, and from the 
Atlantic to ^Nebraska. It passes the winter in the imma- 
ture condition, sheltering in meadows and in tufts of 
grass, and becoming active whenever the weather is mild. 
It is sometimes found in winter in the early larva stages, 
but more often in the pupa state, and becomes fledged 
toward the end of April. 

It differs generically from the Rocky Mountain Locust, 
which hibernates in the egg state. This Green-striped 
Locust, as its name implies, has, when mature, a broad 
green stripe on the front wings, and by its narrower, 

[Fig. 41.] 




Grekn-sti!Iped Locust: -«, larva; b, perfect insect. 

humped and keeled thorax or fore-body (Fig. 41), may 
at once be distinguished from the dreaded Rocky Moun- 
tain pest. Like so many other species of its family it 
occurs in two well marked varieties, one in which, in 
addition to the stripe on the front wings, the whole body 
and hind thighs, above, are pea-green; the other in which 
this color gives way to pale-brown. In both varieties the 
hind wings are smoky, with the basal third greenish. 

The species noticed by Mr. Dunkley to hatch out late 
and to lay eggs in the fall, was more probably femur- 
riibrum than spretics. 

The species of the genus Tettix also hibernate in the 
half-grown and sometimes in the full-grown condition, 
and are frequently supposed to be the young of sjyretus. 
These insects are very active, and are at once distinguished 
by the small head, great breadth across the middle of the 



230 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 

proihorax which extends to a tapering point to or beyond 
the tip of the abdomen ; by the front of the breast forming 
a projection like a stock-cravat into which to receive the 
lower part of the head, and by the short, rudimentary, 
scale-like front wings. They fly with a buzzing noise like 
a flesh-fly. Our most common species ( Tettix gramdata, 
Scudder, Fig. 42,) may be called the Granulated Grouse- 
Locust. Like the other species, it is very variable in color 
[Fig. 42.] and ornamentation, the prevailing hue being 
dai'k-brown beneath and paler above. A well- 
marked variety has a small, pale spot on the 
rudimentary front wings, and a larger conspic- 
uous one on top of the hind thighs. The species 
of the genus Stenohothrus also hibernate partly 
grown, and are mistaken for S2)retus. 

Even insects belonging to a different order are 
not infrequently the cause of unnecessary alarm. 
In the spring of 1875 the meadows were reported as being 
destroyed around Champaign and Jacksonville, Illinois, by 
what was supposed to be the young of sp7'etus / but speci- 
mens of these supposed locusts, sent me by Chapin & Sim- 
mons, of the Jacksonville Journal, proved to be little Jas- 
soid leaf-hoppers allied to the common grape-leaf hoppers 
— insects belonging to a difierent order (Hemiptera) from 
that which includes the locusts (Orthoptera.) They were 
indeed grass-hoppers, in the sense of hopping about among 
the grass, but they were not the so-called grasshoppers 
(locusts) that at the time were proving such a plague in 
parts of Kansas and Missouri. 

PROSPECTIVE INJURY. 

It is of course impossible to predicate with assurance 
injury or non-injury from the fall swarms. There were no 
locusts to do harm in Manitoba in 1876, and it would 




General Considerations. 231 

seem that the Saskatchawan country must have been more 
or less depleted by the swarms which overspread the coun- 
try to the southeast last fall. I am inclined to hope and 
believe that there will not be another general invasion 
next autumn, and that the people of Texas, Indian Ter- 
ritory, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, 
Southern Dakota and even Minnesota, may expect 
immunity for a few years to come, after the hosts which 
hatched this spring are destroyed, or wing themselves 
away. There may be partial injury from their progeny in 
1878, or even 1879, in parts of the country named, espe- 
cially toward the Northwest, but there will, I think, be no 
general destruction. 

That in the future the States just enumerated will be 
again visited from time to time, there can be no manner 
of doubt, unless the Commission now investigating the 
subject discover some means of preventing the migrations 
of the pest from its native breeding-grounds. But the 
injury will decrease in proportion as the population in- 
creases — as knowledge and experience with the insect are 
acquired and retained — and as the Signal Service is able to 
forewarn the farmer of approaching swarms. It is my 
earnest hope that this little treatise, which I now close, 
will, in serving as a record of the past, if in nothing else, 
prove valuable to the farmers of the West, by helping them 
to successfully withstand any future visitation of Calopte- 
nus sjjretus. 



ERRATA. 



Page 44, last line, for " ; " read '■ and." 

Page 92. As I learn from Prof. Asa Gray, the Amaranius here referred to as 
BlUuni, and hitherto so considered by botanists, is, according to Mr. Watson, 
a'new species. It is common in the Eocky Mountain regions, and has cer- 
tainly spread from the West ; whereas the Blitum, introduced fiom Europe, 
has doubtless spread from the East. 

Page 113, line 7, after "Sphinx," add ^' {Deilephila lineata)." 



INDEX. 



A 

Air, eflfects of exposure to, ou eggs 

of sprelus - 148 

Acridium Ainerlcanum 101 

" " flight of, mis- 
taken (or spretus 31 

Acridiitmperigrinum 205 

Amarantus Blitimi 92, 110 

Aiiencan Acridium 101 

Aiiviion, use of Vi 

Ambhjchila cyhndriformis 127 

Atouymoixs Tachina-fly 131 

Anthomyia Egg Parasite 118 

Anthomyia radicum 118 

" " var. calopteni, 118 

•• brassicce 121 

" ceparum 121 

" raphani 121 

Apocynum 92 

Aristida oligostachia — 110 

Asclepias 92 

Asioma gryllaria 128 

" iiarasiticum 130 

Atlantic Locust 22 

B 

Beetles that prey on locusts 127 

Birds, enemies of locusts 113 

Biid laws should be enforced 139 

Birds should be protected 169 

Bounty law, desirable features of.. 185 

Box Turtle, eats locusts 114 

Brachypepliis magnus 228 

Breeding places of spretus 56 

Burning machines 156 

Burning the young locusts 155 

Burying locust-eggs, effects of 149 

C 

Calopfenus A/lanis 22 

" bi-vu(atus 89,194 

" differentialis 89,194 

" femur-rubrum, full de- 
scription of 15 

Caloplenus, peculiar characters of 

the genus 15 

Ca'.optenvs Italicus 31, 221 

Caloptenus fpretus, detailed de- 
scription of 17 



Caloptenus viridis 27 

Caiosoma calidum 127 

Carabkhe, larvse of certain, devour 

eggs of locust.-- 124 

Cat Bird 114 

Catching locusts 161 

Chalcid fly, parasitic ou spretus 117 

Changes that follow locust inva- 
sions 109 

Cicindela, species that prey on 

spretus 128 

Classiflcatory position of sjiretus.. 13 
Climatic peculiarities of Western 

plains 56 

Clumsy locust 227 

Coal-oil pans, how constructed 163 

Coccygus Americanus 114 

Collecting locust-eggs 153 

Comparative description of imma- 
ture stages of sprelus, femur- 

rubrum &ud At lanis 26 

Comparison of Red-legged Locust 

and Rocky Mountain Locust 14 

Compensation attending locust in- 
juries 108 

Contrivances for catching young 

locusts 162 

Coral-winged locust 102 

Cotton batting, us ^ of, in protect- 
ing trees 166 

Country in which spretus can i ot 

permanently thrive 203 

Crabro slirp'icola 122 

Crow Blackbird ... 114 

Crushing young locusts 157 

D 

Damage done by common locusts.. 206 
Dawson, G M., his observations on 

return migrations of spretus 48 

Deilephila liiieata 112 

Destination of departing swarms of 

spretus 104 

Destruction of young locusts 155 

De?tructivene88 of sprelus 89 

Development of migrating instinct 200 
D.fferential locust 194 



234 



Index. 



Direction in which young locnsts 
travel - 100 

Direction taken by departing 
swarms of sprehts 103 

Distinguishing characters of Rocky 
Mountain Locust and Ked-legged 
Locust 15 

Ditch for trap, size important 160 

Ditching and trenching as safe- 
guards aga'mst spre/us.. 157 

Diversified agriculture desirable... 174 

E 
Early visitations of Rocky Moun- 
tain Locust 33 

Eastern limit of locust invasions, 53, 203 
Effects of young of spretiis, where 

hatched - 10" 

Egg-mass of sprelus, construc- 
tion of - "1 

Egg-masses of sprettis, how many 

formed by one female 72 

Eggs of spretus, how laid 69 

" " where laid 96 

" " when hatched 97 

" " experiments with, 140 

" " methods of de- 



stroying 



139 



E:-'g-p!irasites of sjjiedis 117 

Eggs of Silky Mite HO 

Kmbryon of spieliis, growth and 

;ippearance of '''4 

Eragrofitls poxolcks 110 

Erax bastard'u 128 

Escape of sp»'e^<s from egg 73 

Erwista Jlavicauda --- 134 

Exi)eriments with eggs- 
Burying 140 

Exposure to air 148 

Freezing and thawing 141 

Soaking and drying 143 

F 

Fall harrowing 15-' 

Famine and epidemics consequent 

on locust invasions 30 

Fasting and prayer 213 

Ftmurrubnim, dostructiveness of. 

in 18ti9 : 38 

Field :Mouse, eats locust-eggs 11 1 

Flesh-fly 123, 135 

Flight of «ijr«^<*', direction of t)(> 

" " extent of 85 



Flight of sprelus, noise of... S7 

" " sometimes noc- 
turnal 83 

Food plants of spretiis - 89 

Freezing and thawing eggs of 

spretiis 141 

Fruit trees, how protected 105 

" " injuries to 93 

C 

Gordius aquaticus 114 

Granulated grouse-locust 230 

Grasshopper ^s. locust 207 

Great-crested Fly-catcher 114 

Green-striped locust 229 

Green variety of Rocky Mountain 

locust 27 

H 

Habits of young of spretus 98 

Hard soil, why preferred for pur- 
pose of oviposition 77 

Harpalus, larvje ef, devour eggs of 

S2)retus 125, 126 

Harrowing locust-eggs 153 

Har})alus Pennsylvaniciis 127 

History of locust ravages in 

America 33 

H'lgs as destroyers of locusts 171 

Hymecopterous larva, parasitic on 
eggs of Rocky Mountain Locust. 123 

Ichneumons, probably parasitic on 

locusts 128 

Imago of spretus, flexibility of 

newly developed legs of 81 

Influence of moisture on locust- 
eggs '.... 143 

Intervals of oviposition 73 

Invasion of 1818-19 33 

1815-49 .■ -- 34 

1S55-72.,- 34—38 

1874 39 

1875... 42 

1876 49 

Invertebrate locust enemies 115 

Irrigation 154, 171 

J 
Joel the prophet's description of 

locust fligh s 87 

K 

Kansas locust-laws 178, 179 

Kerosene, use of, as a locust-de- 
stroyer 162 



Index. 



235 



Cings or Queens, lociu-ts not led 
by 101 

L 

Lachnosterna fusca 126 

Lapland Longspur 113 

Larvre of Morning Sphinx 110, 111 

Larva of Anihomyia, description of 120 
LarviB of Tachina-flies and flesh- 
flies compared 136 

Larva of spre'zts^ full description of 20 

Late planting desirable 170 

Legislation on locusts 176 

Leptus irritans 130 

Limit of locust migrations 60 

Locust Mite 12S 

Locust plague no new thing 29 

Locust ravages east of Mississippi, 190 
" " how to prevent ... 139 

Locust cs. Grasshopper 207 

Locusts, alarm caused by harmless 

species of 227 

Locusts as food for man 217 

Locusts, flights of, east of the Mis- 
sissippi 201 

Locusts, flights of, in Illinois in 

1873 195 

Locusts, flights of, in Illinois in 

1875, composed mainly of Allanis 198 
Locusts in America, earliest record 

of 31 

Locusts in South America 32 

Locusts not a divine visitation 216 

Locusts on Pacific coast, early 

records of 32 

Nl 
Mantis Carolina, feeds on locusts, 128 
Measurements of femur-rub rum.. 17 
Measurements of locusts, how 

taken 16 

Measurements of sjiretus 21 

Melanerpes erythi-ocephalus 114 

MelanopUis or Caloptenus 209 

Mermis 114 

Migrations of locusts, cause of ..57, 200 
" " influence of 

wind in determining 57, 104. 216 

Migratory instinct of locusts 88 

Migratory locust of Europe, de- 

structiveness of 30 

Migratory locusts in Atlantic 
States 187 



Military, employment of, against 

locusts 173 

Mimus Carolineneis 114 

Minnesota locust-law 180 

Missouri locust-law 177 

Modification of species 63 

Molting process 79 

Molts, number of, in sjiretus 82 

Morning Sphinx 112 

Myiarchus crinitus .. 114 

N 

Native home of sprelus 61 

Natural enemies of spretus 113 

Natural history of spi-etus 69 

Nebraska locust-law- 185 

Ninety - fourth meridian, eastern 

limit of spretus 65 

Nomenclature 207 

Non - migratory locusts, injury 

from 190 

Non-migratory locusts, unusually 

numerous some years 199 

Number of eggs deposited by sjyre- 

tus 70 

O 

(Edipoda atrox 89 

" migratoria 31 

" phmnicoptera 102 

Omaha Conference 53 

Omnivorous propensities of locusts 91 

Origin of migratory locusts 57 

Oviposition of locusts 69 

P 

Panicu7n sanguinale 110 

Parasite of house-fly 130 

Paris Green, use of, for destroying 

locusts 164, 170 

Pasimachus elongatus 127 

Pennsylvania ground-beetle 127 

Perpetuation and permanent settle- 
ment of spretus east of 94th 

meridian impossible 62 

Plants uninjured by locusts 44, 170 

Plectrophanes lapponicns 113 

Ploughing the eggs under 153 

Poultry destroy locusts 171 

Power of locusts f or inj ury 85 

Practical considerations 139 

Prairie fires useful in spring 169 

Prairie fires vs. locust ravases 209 

Predictions as to probable injuries 
from locusts in 1875 41 



236 



Index. 



Preventive measures 



1G9 



Proclamation of Gov. Hardin 213 

Promachus apivora - 127 

Prospective injury from locusts... 2?0 

Pupa of spretus, description of 20 

Purslane, great abundance follows 
locust injury m 

Q 

Qaiscalus versicolor. H* 

R 

Kains^ advantage of heavy 43 

Rate of flight of locusts 56 

Rate of flight of locusts, variable. . 96 

Rate of spread 95 

Rate of travel of young 100 

Ravages of locusts east of Missis- 

1S7 
sippi - '■^' 

Red-eyed Vireo 114 

Red-headed Woodpecker -- 113 

Red ■ legged locust common in 

United States - 14 

Remedies against locusts 139 

Results arrived at by experiments 

on eggs of locusts 151 

Return migration to British 

America *' 

Return migration to British 

America, theory of, strengthened 

by occurrences in 1870 50, 51 

Rocky Mountain Locust purely 

American -- ^^ 

Root crops, what ones safe 175 

S 

Salvia trichoslemmoidfs 92 

Sarcophaga carnorla 123, 135 

*' sarracenloi 132 

Side ditches and drains as traps for 

locusts l^SO 

Sigtiil Service, availability of, in 
communicating information as to 

locust invasions 1''2 

Silky Mite...- 115 

Skunk, enemy of spretus 114 

Smudging and smoking 168 

Soldier-bug, feeds on locusts 128 

Species, geographical range of 202 

Species, failure of people to dis- 
criminate between 20 1 

Species, variation in — 25 



Species vs. Variety and Race 23' 

Species, what constitutes a 24 

Specific distinctions arbitrary.... 35^ 
Spines on legs of locusts, possible 

use of "***■ 

Spretus and Atlanis probable races 

ot femur-rubrum 26 

Starvation caused by locust inva- 
sions—cases of, not well attested. 46- 

Slenopogon consangnlneus 127 

Striped Squirrel, eats locust-eggs.. 114 

Summer ys. Fall swarms 58 

Sulphur, use of, in protecting trees 167 
T 

Tachina anonyma 131 

" flavicauda 134 

Temperature at St. Louis in winter 

of 1876-7, table of 152 

Tendency of hatching locusts to 

push upwards ""^ 

Tellix granulata 230 

Texas, early locust invasion of 34 

Time of appearance of invading 

swarms ^* 

Time of hatching of eggs 97 

Tin, use of, in protecting trees 166 

Tragocephala viridifasciata 228 

Tramping ground infested with 

locust-eggs 154 

Transformations of spreius 69 

Trapping young locusts 157 

Trees, what usually avoided by 

sjireius - ^'■ 

Trombidium scabrum ,^-- 115 

" sericeum 115 

" holocericeiitn 115 

Two-striped locust 194 

V 

Vernonia novmboracensis 92 

Vilfa vaginoiflora m 

W 
Water, efficacy of, in ditches for 

trapping locusts l*'"' 

White-lined Morning Sphinx 112 

Wind, its influence in determining 
course of locust swarms.. 07, 104, 217 
Y 

Yellow-tailed Tachina-fly 134 

Yellow-billed Cuckoo 114 

Young locusts, how destroyed 155- 



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